July 17, 2006
Cellphone networks in Mumbai overloaded
My friend Rohit Gupta sent an e-mail, correcting the false reports about the cell phone network being shut down to prevent terrorists from calling, following the Mumbai (Bombay) bombings:
Cellphone networks did go down in Bombay for a couple of hours, but they were not completely shut. They were overloaded with network traffic, far more than their carrying capacity. Police Commissioner Mr. A. N. Roy stated in a TV interview that the authorities had not issued any order to block cellphones.
What you saw was a result of greedy networks selling more phones than their bandwidth can support. I want to make it very clear that Indian cellphone networks have always treated their customers badly, and they continue to do so because of the license regime.
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