New Delhi – Bharti Airtel subscribers across India are facing a widespread service breakdown, with thousands of users experiencing complete network blackouts, call failures, text messaging problems, and mobile data connectivity issues that began several hours ago on Monday.
The telecommunications giant’s network disruption has prompted an avalanche of complaints on DownDetector, with users from Delhi-NCR appearing to bear the brunt of the outage, though the impact has extended to numerous smaller urban centers nationwide. Interestingly, Mumbai-based Airtel customers contacted for this report indicated they have not experienced similar connectivity problems.
Outage Timeline and Scale
According to DownDetector’s tracking data, the service interruption commenced approximately at 3:30 PM IST. The platform documented a dramatic spike in user grievances, with complaint numbers exceeding 3,500 by 5:18 PM IST. Frustrated subscribers also flooded social media platform X, expressing their concerns and seeking answers about the widespread disruption.
The primary issues affecting users include failures in both incoming and outgoing voice calls, followed by mobile internet connectivity breakdowns and SMS service malfunctions. A significant number of subscribers have reported experiencing complete signal loss. Cities including Delhi and Lucknow have confirmed connectivity problems, alongside several other smaller metropolitan areas across the country.
Company Acknowledges Technical Crisis
Airtel has officially recognized the network failure, issuing a public statement: “We are currently experiencing a network outage, our team is actively working to resolve the issue and restore services promptly. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
Despite the acknowledgment, the telecommunications provider has not offered subscribers a specific timeframe for service restoration, leaving millions of users uncertain about when normal connectivity will resume.
User Advisory and Troubleshooting
As this situation continues to develop, customers are being encouraged to regularly check their service status and follow official company social media channels for real-time updates. Additionally, Airtel subscribers are being advised to implement a basic troubleshooting step: activating airplane mode on their devices briefly, then deactivating it to check whether their network connectivity has been restored.
The outage represents one of the more significant service disruptions for the major Indian telecom provider in recent memory, affecting essential communication services for millions of subscribers during peak business hours.