Aircel is not yet to looking to leave the market as the telco has today inked a deal with state-run telco BSNL for an 'Intracircle Roaming Arrangement' in Chennai and other parts of the country. Aircel Tamil Nadu users will be able to roam on BSNL network, and the company is currently in the process of finalising the deal. BSNL Tamil Nadu is informing customers by sending an SMS to connect to Aircel network manually. Customers can use the roaming service for free, and all the charges will be applicable as per the Aircel plan rates itself. Aircel is already offering ICR services with BSNL in Karnataka state.
"If you face any difficulty in getting Aircel Network please select BSNL - Cellone(2G) Network manually. There will be no extra/roaming charges for this facility and enjoy calling, SMS and DATA as per your Aircel plan," said BSNL Tamil Nadu. Aircel customers across the country panicked after the sudden departure of the network on their mobile phones, but the actual issue was a payment dispute between Aircel and tower operators.
Also, senior officials of Aircel on many television channels, especially in Tamil Nadu said that the network would be fully back in the next 48 hours, but for now, users can manually latch onto BSNL network to enjoy the service.s
Furthermore, Aircel has sent over 250 staff members to control the situation at some of the retail stores in the Chennai city as the company in Wednesday alone received 5 lakh porting requests, thanks to the lack of mobile network. Normally, Aircel receives the same number of port out requests in a month, rather than a single day as per an ET report.
In addition, one of our Aircel users from Tamil Nadu located in Gobichettipalayam named Sathish Kumar has confirmed that the network is back to normal and he also stated that local authorities had assured them for 100% mobile signal in the next couple of days.
But the situation is still bad in some parts of the country. For example, in Hyderabad, users are still riddled with no network issues. Hopefully, everything gets back to normal in the next few days, but do make a note that Aircel is going through some crisis and already warned over 5000 employees to get ready for tough days ahead due to lack of funding.
