When a mobile network blackout leaves millions in lurch

Sadia Akter, a resident of Rajshahi Sadar upazila, had gone to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital at noon on Thursday to see one of her relatives who was admitted there after an accident.

Once she reached the hospital, she had trouble finding the ward or cabin number. She tried to call her relatives over mobile phone, but there was no connection.

It took her two hours to find where her relative was. By that time, her frustration had peaked.

It was only much later that she learned that due to a Grameenphone network blackout, she could not use her phone at that crucial time.

Sadia's predicament was shared by millions of Grameenphone users who were caught unaware of the network blackout.

The disruption increased patients' distress; many couldn't contact medical services or make urgent doctor appointments.

The hour-long network disruption on the last working day of the week also impacted different mobile network-driven businesses, including mobile financing service (MFS) transactions, food deliveries, banking and emergency medical services.

The sudden network blackout also left users worried as they failed to connect to their near and dear ones.

The network operator, Grameenphone, apologised for the unexpected situation and the temporary problem, blaming it on a sudden fibre-optic cable cut during road maintenance in Dhaka, Tangail, Sirajganj and Gazipur areas.

Though around 79 million across the country suffered from the problem, it claimed only some of its users faced connectivity disruptions while making calls and using the internet.  

In an immediate press conference, Grameenphone officials claimed that the problem occurred due to a fibre cable cut by the Roads and Highways Department on the Alega to Gazipur, Dhaka to Gazipur and Tangail to Sirajgang routes.

"With a combined effort of our 500 team members, the network was restored after an outage of over two hours," said Sajjad Hasib, chief marketing officer at Grameenphone.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has sent a letter to Grameenphone seeking an explanation about the network failure and how long it would take to resume the services.

Generally, restoration of such damage in the network infrastructure takes around 12 to 72 hours. But as part of our commitment towards the users for uninterrupted service, we repaired the damage in only two and half hours, said Grameenphone's Head of Network Planning Abul Kasem Mohiuddin Al-Amin

"Today's incident was unwanted, caused by forces which were beyond our control. Our dedicated team acted fast to restore the multiple fibre cuts and also managed to stabilise the sudden surge in call attempts gradually," he added.

Users virtually cut off

As the service was disrupted, people who used GP's mobile network and internet service for communications were virtually cut off. Many resorted to using alternatives such as wifi connections or networks of other operators.

Arafat Hossain, a businessman of Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar, said, "I was panicking because the phone and internet were suddenly gone. There were fears that something bad was happening in the country. Being unable to communicate with anyone, this apprehension spread among many."

There was no GP network in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Natore from 11am to 3pm.

People in Rajshahi also faced a similar problem.

Nasima of Satkhira said she was having an urgent conversation with her husband, who lives abroad, around 11:30am. Suddenly, the line was disconnected. She tried to reconnect the call for around 30 minutes.

She even took her to a nearby telecom shop. That's when she learned she wasn't the only one facing this unwanted situation.

Fewer transactions in MFS

Mobile Financial Service ( MFS), a popular money transaction system, was among the worst hit by the Grameenphone network blackout.

The MFS industry faced troubles in transactions worth around Tk350 crore on Thursday due to the Grameenphone network disruption.

Generally, the MFS industry deals around Tk130 crore each hour in a working day said sources at the central bank.

Sajib Das, an agent of Grameenphone in the Zindabazar area of Sylhet, said flexiload and bKash had both stopped working in the morning. "I didn't understand the problem at first. I realised only later on."

Admitting the impact in the sector, a top official at bKash, the largest MFS provider in the country, told The Business Standard that as the service is totally network dependent, money transactions on Thursday were mainly impacted due to the Grameenphone network disruption.

He, however, refused to disclose the transaction numbers during the network blackout.

Food delivery sees fewer orders

Unlike any typical working day, food delivery service providers in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and other divisional cities saw fewer orders on Thursday amid the network disruption.

Normally, 11am to 2pm is the peak hour for the food delivery industry as that is when office-goers and private and corporate job holders order their lunches.

But Grameenphone network users could not order food during lunchtime on Thursday.

Those who made their orders before the disruption did not receive their deliveries.

Maruf Ahmad, an online food delivery service agent in Sylhet, said he received three orders after 11:00am. But, after preparing the food, he could not contact the customers, incurring a loss.

Contacted, Foodpanda, the largest food delivery platform in the country, said mobile network disruption impacted their businesses as most customers use mobile apps to place orders.

"The two-hour long interruption impacted sessions and orders temporarily," read a statement issued by Foodpanda.  

"However, we didn't see any significant impact on orders that were placed through apps using wifi and other networks," it added.

Expatriate also worried

Bangladesh expatriates living in different countries also suffered due to the Grameenphone network cut off as they could not reach their relatives back home.

The International Gateway (IGW) is a medium through which international incoming and outgoing calls are handled.

However, on Thursday, expatriates needed help to reach their relatives who use Grameenphone.

An IGW operator told TBS it had impacted the international carrier and domestic interconnect exchange.

"No call passed for those particular hours," he said.

Meanwhile, to avoid such incidents in the future, Grameenphone's Head of Communications Khairul Basher said, "Optical fibre cable is the backbone of telecommunication and the national infrastructure. We all should be more cautious about the safety of this infrastructure."

Our Sylhet, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Lakshmipur, Cumilla, Khulna and Bogura districts correspondents contributed to this report.