GP restores network after over 2-hr debacle due to 'fibre cable cut'

After an outage of over two hours since 11.45am Thursday, country's leading mobile operator Grameenphone has said their services have been restored.

"Due to fibre cut during road maintenance in Gazipur, Tangail and Sirajganj areas, some of our customers were facing connectivity problems. However, the situation has been brought under control and all the issues are currently resolved," GP's Head of Communications Khairul Basher told The Business Standard around 2pm.

Earlier in the day, GP users reported disrupted services in some places of the country. Many people posted on social media platforms saying that they faced difficulty in making phone calls and sending SMSs.

When contacted, Khairul Basher said, "We sincerely apologise for the temporary problem which happened due to fibre cable cut. Our team is working with utmost importance to solve the issue quickly."

Another official of the mobile operator said, "Fibre cables were cut at three places in Tangail and Sirajganj during road reparation works at 11.45am. We are trying to fix it as soon as possible." 

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has sent a letter to Grameenphone seeking an explanation about the network failure and how long it would take to resume the services. In response, the mobile operator informed BTRC that network will be back within 1.5 hours.

As the service is disrupted, people who use GP's mobile network and internet service for communications had been virtually cut off. 

Many resorted to using alternatives such as wifi connections or networks of other operators. 

The disruption in the operator's network added to the distress of patients as many couldn't contact medical services or make urgent appointments with the doctors.

In June last year, BTRC imposed an indefinite suspension on the SIM card sale of GP for the operator's failure to provide quality service.

Following a regulatory approval in September, Grameenphone was allowed to sell SIM cards against its suspended unused numbers.

However, after allowing GP to sell unused but pre-approved SIM, BTRC backtracked on its decision in November. The telecom regulator barred the country's leading telecom operator from recycling old SIM cards, on top of selling new ones. 

On 3 January this year, the government lifted the ban on GP SIM card sales.