Khawaja Tower fire: Internet, mobile services disrupted across country
As of 9:30pm, at least one person has died in the fire incident while trying to climb down the building using a wire in a bid to escape the blaze.
A devastating fire in Khawaja Tower, a 14-storey commercial building in the capital's Mohakhali , has been causing disruptions in internet and telecom services across the country.
"Due to a fire incident at Khawaja Tower in Mohakhali, all mobile operators are experiencing issues with inter-operator calls, as there is a hub of interconnection exchange located in that building," the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) said in a statement on Thursday night.
The association added, "Mobile operators, in collaboration with the relevant ICX operators, are actively working to relocate the connections to another location at an earliest.
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"We hope to improve the situation soon. We would appreciate everyone to bear with this inconvenience caused due to this fire incident,"
Robi, the second largest telecom operator in the country, also issued a press statement in this regard.
"Due to technical reasons caused by the fire incident at Khawaja Tower located in Mohakhali, Dhaka, some of our valued customers may experience temporary difficulty in making voice calls from Robi to other operators or from other operators to Robi. Our technical department is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for this temporary inconvenience," Robi said.
Khawaja Tower also houses mobile network towers of the other major telecom operators including Grameenphone, the largest one in the country.
The Business Standard could not reach Grameenphone officials for a comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) President Emdadul told TBS that the building houses two separate data centres of International Internet Gateway (IEG) which provides bandwidth to some of the major ISPs of the country.
"The ISPs dependent on the IEG data centres provide 70% of broadband internet services across the country. As the data centres are shut down, internet services are getting disrupted," he said.
Emdadul said an estimated 60-70% internet users in Dhaka are experiencing internet glitches.
The fire is also disrupting inter-operator calls.
As of 9:30pm, at least one person has died in the fire incident while trying to climb down the building using a wire in a bid to escape the blaze.
Rafi Al Faruk, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters told The Business Standard that the fire originated on the 13th floor of the 14-storey building.
The army, navy, and air force have joined forces with the Fire Service to combat the blaze, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Following the fire incident, traffic movement was halted on both sides of the road stretching from Amtali to Gulshan 1.
The fire service was informed of the fire at 4:58pm and the first unit reached the spot at 5:07pm, said duty officer Rafi Al Faruk.
