Major disruption to GP networks

The subscribers of Bangladesh’s largest mobile service provider Grameenphone (GP) suffered network disruption for over two hours from 11:45am to 1:55pm across the country on Thursday, halting both the voice and internet services.

The disruption occurred just only a month after the government withdrew its ban on the sale of the operators’ SIM cards, slapped on June 2022 over the allegation of not providing quality services including call drops.

Due to the ban, Grameenphone lost over 55 lakh subscribers in just six months from July to December last year. Just after six months, the operator’s subscribers increased by 80,000 to 7.92 crore.

However, the operator claimed that the service interruption occurred due to the damage to fibre-optic cables during construction works on different highways in Dhaka-Gazipur, Tangail-Sirajganj, and Elenga-Jamalpur.

Khairul Basher, head of communication Grameenphone, said, “We sincerely apologise for the temporary difficulty in making calls due to multiple fibre optics cables being cut.

“Due to the cut of fibre optic cables during the road maintenance works in Gazipur, Tangail, and Sirajganj, some of our customers were facing connectivity problems. However, the situation has been brought under control and all the issues were resolved,” he said while talking to The Business Post at 2:10pm.

Subscribers from all across the country had to face network problems, according to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association (BMPCA).

Based on BMPCA’s claim, this correspondent tried to reach several GP subscribers using other operators’ phones in several other districts including Manikganj, Madaripur and Narshingdi and they had recognised the disruptions.

Many GP customers from different locations expressed disinfection on social media saying that they were facing problems while sending SMS and making phone calls.

“GP’s statement or claim that there is a network disruption across the country due to fibre disconnection is absurd,” said BMPCA President Mohiuddin Ahmed.

Nearly nine crore GP customers suffered network outages during those two hours across the country, and many customers had first thought there was a problem with their handsets or SIM cards.

Later it came to be known from the GP’s statement that the network has been disrupted due to the cutting of fibre cable in Tangail and Sirajganj.

“During the two hours of outage, the subscribers of Mobile Financial Service (MFS) who use GP numbers had to face huge service disruption. Our point is very clear that this lame excuse of GP is not realistic at all,” he said.

“First of all, if the fibre cable is disconnected in Tangail and Sirajganj then why is the network disaster across the country?” he said. “If that fibre is of private companies, then why other operators didn’t face the same network problem?”

“Thirdly, GP serves 16.5% of customers through fibre connections and activates mobile networks using microwaves. However, if the fibre connection is temporarily disconnected, they could be served with a microwave,” he added.

“We think GP has hidden the truth. Maybe there was a major disaster in their switching system,” he said, claiming that the commission should quickly set up an inquiry committee to find out the real scenario. Also, it is GP's sole responsibility to compensate the customers.

Meanwhile, BTRC issued a notice seeking proper explanations from GP about the network breakdown, describing the incident as a “national emergency”.