A significant service interruption occurred for Bharti Airtel users nationwide on Sunday, impacting their ability to make calls and utilize mobile data services in various major Indian cities. DownDetector, a platform monitoring outages, indicated that user complaints began around 11 am, with a peak in reports occurring shortly after midday. By 12:11 pm, over 6,800 reports had been registered, revealing that roughly 52% of users were experiencing “No Signal” issues, while about 31% reported problems with their mobile internet connections. The widespread nature of the outage led to the “Airtel Down” trending topic on X (formerly Twitter), as users shared their experiences and frustrations.
Airtel issued a statement confirming the disruption, describing it as a temporary technical issue, and assuring users of a prompt resolution. The company’s official communication channel, Airtel Cares, posted that the problem was due to a temporary connectivity disruption and was expected to be resolved within an hour, advising users to restart their devices afterward to regain service.
Several major cities were affected, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai, where users were unable to make calls or access their mobile data. This follows a similar, albeit shorter, outage that affected Delhi and surrounding areas earlier in the week. Social media users expressed their issues, with one user joking, “For the last hour my wife thinks I’m ignoring her calls. Thanks Airtel, for turning a network issue into a marriage issue.”