Fire at data centre disrupts Airtel services

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom service provider services, in the western region were disrupted yesterday after a fire broke out in its data centre at Malad, the second in three-years.   

In July 2008, a fire had broken out at Airtel's Peninsula Tower office in the city.    

The worst hit were the data services, though GPRS, 3G and BlackBerry services were also impacted. The operator's internet
services and data centre management services to corporate customers in Mumbai were also affected.    

Customers also complained of voice calls disruptions and signal failures on social networking sites, including Twitter.   

"There was a network outage in the Western region this morning as a result of a fire in our central POP (point of presence) in Malad, Mumbai. Our teams have been working since morning to normalise all affected services. Mobile voice, BlackBerry and SMS services have largely been restored and are stabilising," Airtel said in a statement.   

"We are working towards restoring 2G and 3G data services later tonight. However, for the enterprise services like IPLC
(international private leasedline circuit), leased lines and Internet services, the restoration work is in progress and these services are likely to be restored in the next 24 hours," it added.   

Airtel's Western region includes Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat telecom circles.     The region accounts for about 17 per cent of Airtel's 174.69 million users as on 30 November, 2011, with Mumbai contributing about 4 per cent of the company's revenues.    

However, by Tuesday evening voice, BlackBerry and SMS services had been largely been restored.