GURGAON: A late-night disruption in mobile network was taxing for Vodafone-Idea users, some of whom said that they were unable to get in touch with their family while traveling, reach out to colleagues about time-sensitive work and were stranded on roads with no access to cab-aggregator apps.
Vodafone-Idea said in a statement that a "technical issue" caused a brief outage across NCR in the early hours of Friday, but the issue was resolved by the morning and "services were back to normal".
Evan Srivastava (39), who was going home from Gurgaon's Sector 84 to Sector 70A around 12.30am, said he suddenly lost all network.
"Google Maps was down. I tried restarting my phone, but it didn't work. Imagine if something happened in the middle of the road and there was no network to call for help," he said, adding: "It's not just about convenience — it's about safety."
Vats Gupta (26), who lives in DLF-1, said he was driving home from DLF-5 when the outage kicked in.
"I tried to contact my family," Gupta, who runs a jewellery business, said.
Rajat Srivastava told TOI his flight landed at Delhi airport around 2am, and he was unable to book a cab.
"I had to go to Gurgaon but could not connect to the network after the flight landed. Booking a cab was difficult and I couldn't inform my family. Eventually, I had to take a prepaid cab at the airport to reach home in Sector 70A," he said.
Srivastava added that the mobile network came back around 9am on Friday.
For Amit Singh, manager of a pub in Noida's Sector 38A, the outage turned into a logistical problem just as he wound up operations around 1.30am.
"I usually book an Uber to get home after shutting shop. But my phone just stopped working. No signal, no internet. I had to wait for 40 minutes before a staffer with a different network could book one for me," he said.
A news producer with a television channel, Rohit Chawla said he had wrapped up his evening shift at the Noida office around 12.30am when the disruption struck.
"I usually coordinate with my next-day crew or follow up with reporters late at night. But none of my messages or calls were going through while I was on my way back home. It was after I reached home that I could connect to my WiFi and get in touch with my colleagues," he said.
Dr Aakash Mehra, a cardiologist at a private hospital in Greater Noida, said he was worried that the staff wouldn't be able to reach him in case of an emergency.
"My wife uses a different network, so I left her number with the hospital in case something urgent came up. It's scary when you realise that even a few hours without connectivity can be a risk in our profession," he said.
Ride-hailing services were also hit.
Jitender, a cab driver who usually works at night in Noida, decided to head back home early. "I waited for almost an hour near Sector 76 metro but couldn't get a single booking. The app just wouldn't connect. I finally gave up and drove home," he said.
According to Downdetector, which tracks outages, user reports for Vodafone-Idea network problems stacked up after 12.30am and peaked around 1am, with over 1,880 reports. Most users said they could not catch a mobile signal.
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank our users for their patience and understanding," a spokesperson for Vodafone-Idea said.
(With PTI inputs)
Vodafone-Idea said in a statement that a "technical issue" caused a brief outage across NCR in the early hours of Friday, but the issue was resolved by the morning and "services were back to normal".
Evan Srivastava (39), who was going home from Gurgaon's Sector 84 to Sector 70A around 12.30am, said he suddenly lost all network.
"Google Maps was down. I tried restarting my phone, but it didn't work. Imagine if something happened in the middle of the road and there was no network to call for help," he said, adding: "It's not just about convenience — it's about safety."
Vats Gupta (26), who lives in DLF-1, said he was driving home from DLF-5 when the outage kicked in.
"I tried to contact my family," Gupta, who runs a jewellery business, said.
Rajat Srivastava told TOI his flight landed at Delhi airport around 2am, and he was unable to book a cab.
"I had to go to Gurgaon but could not connect to the network after the flight landed. Booking a cab was difficult and I couldn't inform my family. Eventually, I had to take a prepaid cab at the airport to reach home in Sector 70A," he said.
Srivastava added that the mobile network came back around 9am on Friday.
For Amit Singh, manager of a pub in Noida's Sector 38A, the outage turned into a logistical problem just as he wound up operations around 1.30am.
"I usually book an Uber to get home after shutting shop. But my phone just stopped working. No signal, no internet. I had to wait for 40 minutes before a staffer with a different network could book one for me," he said.
A news producer with a television channel, Rohit Chawla said he had wrapped up his evening shift at the Noida office around 12.30am when the disruption struck.
"I usually coordinate with my next-day crew or follow up with reporters late at night. But none of my messages or calls were going through while I was on my way back home. It was after I reached home that I could connect to my WiFi and get in touch with my colleagues," he said.
Dr Aakash Mehra, a cardiologist at a private hospital in Greater Noida, said he was worried that the staff wouldn't be able to reach him in case of an emergency.
"My wife uses a different network, so I left her number with the hospital in case something urgent came up. It's scary when you realise that even a few hours without connectivity can be a risk in our profession," he said.
Ride-hailing services were also hit.
Jitender, a cab driver who usually works at night in Noida, decided to head back home early. "I waited for almost an hour near Sector 76 metro but couldn't get a single booking. The app just wouldn't connect. I finally gave up and drove home," he said.
According to Downdetector, which tracks outages, user reports for Vodafone-Idea network problems stacked up after 12.30am and peaked around 1am, with over 1,880 reports. Most users said they could not catch a mobile signal.
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank our users for their patience and understanding," a spokesperson for Vodafone-Idea said.
(With PTI inputs)
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