Several Vodafone Idea users across Bengaluru have been facing connectivity issues with little or no signal. Users got a notification on their phones that read, “Temporarily turned off by your carrier for SIM.”
Users from Kumaraswamy layout, Indiranagar, Electronic City and Shantala Nagar took to Twitter to complain about a loss of network, no signal, and some reporting that their “voice service has been restricted.”
“Vodafone Idea network down for the past 1 hour in Bangalore. When will this be restored,” one user tweeted. Some users said that network has been down for over two hours.
Vodafone Idea has been responding to tweets saying that the issue is temporary, and that they are working on it.
It is suspected that Optical Fibre Cables (OFC) may have been damaged in the city.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Anil Kumar told TNM that it is on a drive to remove Optical Fibre Cables, which are above the ground.
“We have been asking telecom companies to move their OFC underground. These companies cannot lay OFCs wherever they want on electric poles and trees which make it visually ugly. We cannot differentiate between OFC of different companies and we want to ask Vodafone in which area, the OFC was removed. We don't know which area this has happened. The question of blaming BBMP does not arise,” Anil Kumar said.
The BBMP, after amending the permissions given for installing OFCs, had earlier stated that October 15 is the deadline to lay cables underground. This was done to ensure cables are not hung in public places.
The BBMP had also fined Airtel and Reliance Jio for digging up newly laid roads in October 2019 to lay OFCs underground. After this issue was resolved, the BBMP gave telecom companies six weeks till February 7 to remove OFCs which are above ground and take them underground.
Vodafone said in a statement that there was temporary disruption in services in parts of Bangalore today, due to fibre cuts in the city and outskirts. "Our prompt response action ensured full restoration of services within a short time. We regret any inconvenience caused to our customers," it added.
In a more detailed statement, the company said, "There was temporary disruption in services in parts of Bangalore today, due to fibre cuts in the city and outskirts. Our prompt response action ensured full restoration of services within a short time. We regret any inconvenience caused to our customers." But within hours, #Vodafonedown began trending on Twitter.
No network in Bangalore since two hours @VodafoneIN.. Pathetic service. #Vodafonedown #vodafoneidea #vodafoneindia
— Manoj Gunasekaran (@manoj_g1992) February 7, 2020
Pathetic experience. How can you guys be so irresponsible? Forget about internet! What are we supposed to do without network? #Vodafonedown
— soma (@deadlysoma) February 7, 2020
#Vodafonedown @VodafoneIN Can anyone update why the Vodafone Network in BLR is completely down since an hour now? What's going on? You guys want us to change service provider? Do we get discount on postpaid bills due to no service or you will still charge for full month@TRAI
— Shanto Banerjee (@banerjeeshanto) February 7, 2020
@VodafoneIN you should pay penalty to the customers for this downtime #Vodafonedown
— Jatin Seth (@imjatinseth) February 7, 2020
#Vodafonedown @VodafoneIN Such pathetic service. No internet connectivity .. This is the era of 5G and you are giving not a single G.
— Vizzy (@vizzyno1) February 7, 2020
So I joined Vodafone services thinking they will be better, unfortunately, it is even worse. Network is down in Bangalore!! #Vodafonedown
— Toyesh Shukla (@toyeshshukla) February 7, 2020
If you pay the bill a min late you are charged 100 rs.. Who will compensate for this outage?#Vodafonedown @VodafoneIN
— shortee1 (@shortee1) February 7, 2020
Vodafone network goes blank across Karnataka. Company says it will take two more hours for it to be restored, blames BBMP for cutting its OFC and disrupting its network. Two terrible service providers having a great day. @VodafoneIN @BBMPCOMM #Vodafonedown
— Harish Upadhya (@harishupadhya) February 7, 2020
This network outage is the latest in a whole slew of troubles for the telco, which has been teetering on the verge of collapse, and is desperate need to be bailed out. Following the Supreme Court’s AGR verdict, the company reported the biggest ever quarterly loss in India’s corporate history, and is in need of aid. With both parent companies saying that they will not be infusing any new capital into the Vodafone Idea joint venture, its existence has been in question. Amid this confusion, the company has also rapidly been losing subscribers.
With inputs from Prajwal Bhat