Customers come to transact at MobiFone store on the morning of October 31

On October 28, prolonged heavy rains caused many streets in the center of Hue to be deeply flooded. While people were busy moving their belongings, calling relatives or trying to find updates on the rising water, many MobiFone subscribers suddenly lost signal.

“My whole family uses Mobi, but the phone service is down, I can’t make calls or send messages. It’s really worrying during the storm,” said Nguyen Thi Bich (An Cuu ward).

Not only in the central area, people in Phu Xuan, Huong So, Hoa Chau wards... where the flood is deep, also face the same situation. Some have to borrow phones from other networks to report safety. "I texted but couldn't send it, so I had to borrow a Viettel phone to call my mother in Phong Dien", said Mr. Quoc Thang (Dang Tat street).

The nearly three-day outage has caused inconvenience to many people, especially as the weather continues to worsen. Not only are they unable to make calls or access the internet, many customers say they have not received any information from the network operator about the cause or when the issue will be resolved.

“I went to MobiFone’s fanpage to look for notifications but couldn’t find anything. I don’t know if it was a power outage or the station was flooded, I just hope the network operator will fix it soon,” said Le Van Long (Phu Xuan ward).

According to Ms. Minh Phuong, owner of a grocery store on Hai Ba Trung Street, in the event of a natural disaster, information interruptions are inevitable. “But just a text message of apology or a preliminary notice can make people feel more secure,” she said.

On the morning of October 31, when the power supply was restored in most of the city, MobiFone signals gradually returned. Talking to us, Mr. Phan Van Hoai, Director of MobiFone Hue City , expressed: "We sincerely apologize and hope customers sympathize with the inconveniences during the recent rainy and flooded days."

MobiFone technical staff crossed the flood to bring equipment to BTS stations in deep floodwaters (Photo: MobiFone)

According to Mr. Hoai, since October 22, the unit has prepared a response plan, most worried about power outages because they will affect broadcasting, especially at BTS stations located in flooded areas. After two days of heavy flooding (from October 27 to the morning of October 29), about 111/642 MobiFone BTS stations in Hue lost signal (accounting for nearly 17%), mainly in inner-city areas and wards such as Vy Da, Kim Long, Thuan Hoa, and part of Huong Thuy, Phu Loc...

“The main cause was a widespread power outage. We were able to respond to 52 of those stations in time, but 66 stations still lost signal. We divided our forces into groups in charge of each cluster of stations to restore the service as soon as possible,” said Mr. Hoai.

Since October 28, 11 rescue teams from other provinces and local forces with a total of nearly 80 people have been mobilized to support Hue. At the same time, MobiFone also opened roaming with Viettel , helping customers to maintain some communication during the interruption.

However, the rescue operation encountered many obstacles: “The deep floodwater prevented the technical staff from accessing the station. In some places, when the transmitter was brought in, the homeowner did not allow it to be installed for fear of danger; in some places, the homeowner had evacuated and locked the door. This was a force majeure, not that MobiFone was indifferent to its customers,” Mr. Hoai affirmed.

Alliance - Hoai Thuong

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/theo-dong-thoi-su/mobifone-mat-song-nguoi-dan-loay-hoay-tim-lien-lac-159429.html