Technical glitch: Airtel subscribers suffer

Several lakh Airtel mobile subscribers are facing disruption in their network since early today due to technical glitches at around 1,000 stations of the telecom company in Dhaka and six other districts in the country.

The glitches have no connection with the bio-metric SIM re-registration, said Airtel's official statement issued today.

Protesting the disruption, hundreds of Airtel subscribers staged demonstration in front of its Dhanmondi office around 10:30am, said Nur-e-Azam, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi Police Station.

They left the scene after getting assurance from the Airtel officials and police, the OC said. Additional police personnel have been deployed in front of the office to avert any unwanted incident.

The authorities detected the technical glitches after the subscribers reported the problem since 2:00am, the statement said.

The glitches will be repaired within a few hours as the telecom company has started working on it, the statement said.

The six other districts include Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Shariatpur, Faridpur and Chandpur.

In its statement, Airtel authorities apologised to its subscribers for the disruption.

A subscriber, Rafiul Islam, told The Daily Star he had become worried after his mobile phone set displayed "no network coverage" around 6:30am.

"I wondered why my Airtel SIM has been blocked even though it is biometrically verified," he said.