On Sunday, telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel encountered a nationwide service disruption, affecting thousands of users and preventing them from making calls or using mobile data in several prominent Indian cities. Data from DownDetector, a platform that tracks service outages, indicated that the surge in complaints began around 11 am, with a peak occurring just after noon. By 12:11 pm, the platform had logged more than 6,800 reports, with approximately 52% of users reporting “No Signal” issues and 31% experiencing problems with mobile internet access. This prompted the trending hashtag “Airtel Down” on X (formerly Twitter), where users voiced their complaints regarding network connectivity.
Airtel acknowledged the disruption, labeling it a temporary issue and assuring a quick resolution. The official Airtel Cares account confirmed the issue was due to a temporary connectivity disruption and expected resolution within an hour. Users were instructed to restart their devices to restore services.
The network outage impacted a number of key cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai. This is not the first issue; a similar outage occurred earlier in the week in Delhi and nearby regions. Social media users shared a range of issues related to the outage, with some noting that Airtel’s customer support channels were unresponsive. Others shared issues such as an inability to book a cab.