BENGALURU: Telecom major Airtel faced a major service disruption on Sunday, leaving thousands of customers across Karnataka, specifically the state capital, unable to make calls or access the internet for up to six hours. The outage, which affected prepaid, postpaid and broadband users alike, sparked a wave of complaints, with many taking to social media.
Outage tracking platform Downdetector recorded a spike in reports beginning around 10.44 am and peaking at 12.15 pm, when over 7,100 users flagged connectivity issues. Subscribers reported weak signals and, in some places, a complete blackout. This marks the company’s second major service failure in less than a week. On August 19, more than 3,500 users had reported similar problems in Delhi NCR.
Downdetector data showed that 52 per cent of complainants received a “No Signal” message, with 31 per cent unable to use mobile data. Apart from Karnataka, users from Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata also reported disruptions while accessing the internet and making calls, Downdetector reported.
Airtel, responding to users on X, attributed the disruption to “temporary connectivity issues” and assured that services would be restored within an hour. Reports of outages started declining after 1 pm, suggesting partial recovery. However, by 4 pm, more than 150 users were still flagging disruptions, indicating that the problem persisted in pockets.
Many customers said the problem lasted much longer than six hours. “Airtel postpaid has been down for over six hours — no calls, no internet. Zero accountability and you can’t even reach customer care. @TRAI should at least take action. Looks like @airtelindia has taken citizens for a ride,” a user posted on X.
“Is anyone facing issues with Airtel Wifi or Airtel calling? Since morning, I didn’t get internet and their customer service guys are also not answering the calls. @Airtel_Presence @airtelIndia,” another user with X handle, Naneyidupakka, wrote.