Honest 836 Report post Posted July 18, 2008 Fire disrupts Airtel services 18 Jul, 2008, 1438 hrs IST, PTI MUMBAI: Mobile services provided by Airtel were disrupted on Friday in the commercial capital after a building, which housed the service provider's network tower, caught fire in central Mumbai. The fire that broke out at the Peninsula Chambers owned by Tata Power Corporation was due to a short circuit in the power cables, fire officials said. Eight fire engines and seven water tanks were pressed into service to put the fire under control, they said. Several customers in many areas of Mumbai were affected after Airtel's service was snapped. The service will be restored soon, a statement issued by the company said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted July 18, 2008 Well, Im in Pune... and I'v not been able to send SMS since late evening. Attempt to call gives the msg Network Busy. Are all their towers in Poona also on fire??? Airtel has a horrid network here... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 18, 2008 ^^^ @Raccoon My dear friend, can't say about Pune, but in Mumbai today the Airtel's network is much affected due to fire. Subscribers were unable to make or receive any outgoing calls in that particular area. In Pune their could be some other problem with Airtel. As you always say in other threads that Airtel's network in Pune is Pathetic. So it seems its going to be more pathetic day by day. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted July 18, 2008 (edited) Ya... thats why I said - for practical all practical purposes, their towers are on fire everywhere... After experiencing their horrid network, I hope they all go up in flames... POOF~!!! Edited July 19, 2008 by raccoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 Am not able to make any outgoing calls or SMSes since last night....!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 Airtel services yet to be fully restored in Mumbai 19 Jul, 2008, 1714 hrs IST, PTI MUMBAI: Airtel mobile subscribers here continued to face disruption in their network connection on Saturday, a day after a fire gutted its telecom tower at Central Mumbai. The private telecom company, however, said most of the services have been restored. "Incoming calls and text messages have started since last night. The outgoing facilities will also be restored soon," an Airtel spokesperson said here. The fire at Penninsula Chambers was caused by a short circuit in the basement of the building owned by Tata Power Corporation, disrupting mobile services on Friday. Although the blaze was extinguished within a few hours, services were yet to be restored completely. "All mobile services should have alternate or back-up arrangements in case of such emergencies so that the subscribers do not suffer," said Prashant Trivedi, an Airtel user. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 Am not able to make any outgoing calls or SMSes since last night....!!! ^^^ Hmmmm, the fire was erupted in Mumbai my dear friend, then what the hell is happened in Pune. Raccoon, you are then very correct that Airtel s**ks their in Pune. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 (edited) Its amazing that fire in just ONE tower in Bombay can cause this mind of disruption! Its gotta be something more serious than that!! "All mobile services should have alternate or back-up arrangements in case of such emergencies so that the subscribers do not suffer," said Prashant Trivedi, an Airtel user. Forget about this kind of back-up, I'v even noticed that sometimes my Airtel signal has vanished when there is a power outage!!! They dont even have proper power back up for some of their towers... can you beat that??? Never experienced this kind of thing with the 3 other operators I'v used - Idea, Reliance & BSNL. Airtel is a class apart! Edited July 19, 2008 by raccoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 ^^^ Well, my dear friend, in matter of backup the MTNL and BSNL is the best. In the time of floods in Mumbai, all private operators network was down very soon but it was only MTNL who's network was lasted for the longest period. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 (edited) I'm not sure thats true. I'v heard from different users that xyz operator was workign while all others were kaput! What I feel is that networks of different operators were working in different parts of Bombay... It seems however that Hutch and Airtel were the worst hit, while BPL, Reliance, MTNL were working in different parts... Edited July 19, 2008 by raccoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 19, 2008 It seems however that Hutch and Airtel were the worst hit, while BPL, Reliance, MTNL were working in different parts... ^^^ Very correct my dear friend, that Hutch and Airtel were the worst hit at that time, as I myself had taken 6 months CLIP free from Hutch due to bad service as compensation. After Hutch service wiped out in the city due to floods, then came the number of BPL, then Reliance and in the last with the longest backup came the number of MTNL. After contacting the CC of both Hutch and MTNL they told the facts about backup time. Hutch people told that they have a backup time of only 4 hours in front of MTNL's 16 hours backup. Now you can imagine how these private operators left the commercial city on just 4 hours backup time. Hope they had learnt the lesson from the floods of Mumbai and should have increased the backup time by now. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 21, 2008 Airtel to enhance traffic carrying capacity, connectivity in city 22 Jul, 2008, 0117 hrs IST, ET Bureau MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel is increasing traffic carrying capacity in the Mumbai circle by 10% and deploying more optic fibre and in-building solutions (IBS) to improve connectivity and quality of services in the financial capital. “In the next couple of weeks, the capacity will be 10% higher than what it was before the fire broke out (in the company’s Lower Parel office) on Friday. This will be over and above the peak hours capacity,” Bharti Airtel president & CEO Manoj Kohli told ET. Mr Kohli, who is in Mumbai along with Airtel president-mobile services Sanjay Kapoor, chief technology officer Don Price and other senior officials, said STD, ISD as well as data services were normal by Monday evening. “We are still reviving interconnects with Vodafone Essar, MTNL and Tatas and this takes time logistically. By end of this week, all interconnects will be in good shape,” he said. Bharti officials and partners like Nokia, Ericsson and IBM have been working round-the-clock to restore connectivity to subscribers affected due to the fire in the operator’s office in Central Mumbai on Friday. Bharti’s other two sites are in Malad, north Mumbai, and in Mahape near Mumbai. “The other two sites have taken up traffic very well and redundancy has been fully utilised,” he said. The operator, with over 2.5 million users in Mumbai and over 69.8 million across India, is enhancing the fibre optic coverage in the circle. It currently has 450 km of fibre optic network in Mumbai, which will be increased to 500 km. Across the country, Airtel’s optic fibre network spans over 73,787 kms covering all the major cities. “We have sanctioned more fibre to be deployed. The traffic is growing very well and we will need more capacity. There will be no congestion after capacity is increased,” he said. Bharti is also undertaking re-optimisation of its network. Network re-optimisation allows it to carry more traffic without adding capacity. “As topography changes, we have to fine-tune the network. At this point, we are re-optimising. We started with South Mumbai and by this week, there will be higher quality of services,” Mr Kohli said. Airtel is enhancing the deployment of IBS. IBS provides an alternative to weakly covered areas, distributing radio frequency energy more evenly. It allows disruption-free communications allowing mobile users seamless access to various services. The company will have to make payments to Vodafone Essar for re-routing traffic through its network after the Friday fire. Besides, Bharti is also spending considerable amount of money in re-starting operations at the Lower Parel building that also houses its BlackBerry server, data services and Home Location Register (HLR), which is the database of all mobile subscribers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
