8 million Delhi cellphones go dead as Airtel grid collapses

Around eight million customers of Bharti Airtel's mobile phone services in Delhi had a harrowing time last evening, as the company's services collapsed for several hours due to a network malfunction.

Customers were a confused lot, as they could neither make nor receive calls, and even customer care services were unreachable. Many thought their handsets were at fault – in the absence of any explanation, they found it hard to believe that the network of India's biggest mobile phone company had collapsed.

The company did not give any reason for failure of its network. ''An unforeseen technical outage had affected services on some of our circuits,'' a Bharti spokesperson said. ''As a result some of Airtel Delhi mobile subscribers have experienced connectivity issues.''

With a perfunctory apology to customers, she said the problem had been rectified, though she did not disclose the exact nature of the problem. Services were restored gradually, rather than all at once.

According to some industry experts, there could be larger issues involved than a mere temporary network malfunction. The introduction of 3G services has put fresh strain on the networks – which is why calls drop frequently on networks that are offering these services, they say.

Others also point to Airtel's aggressive outsourcing model – it has outsourced almost its entire technology to outside vendors, leaving it with little control in crisis situations.