On Monday, August 18, 2025, Bharti Airtel users in the Delhi-NCR region faced a sudden network outage, leaving many unable to make or receive calls. The disruption, which began around 3:30 p.m., quickly drew attention as complaints surged on social media platforms.
According to service tracking portal DownDetector, the number of user reports peaked an hour later, with over 2,300 complaints logged across India. While Delhi-NCR appeared to be the most affected, scattered disruptions were also noted in other regions, suggesting a widespread issue with both mobile data and voice services.
Responding to the massive surge in user complaints, Airtel Cares, the company’s customer care handle on social media, issued a statement: “We are currently experiencing a network outage, our team is actively working to resolve the issue and restore services promptly. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
When contacted, an Airtel spokesperson added further clarity, saying, “Our customers from Delhi-NCR are experiencing some voice calling issues for the past hour or so. A significant part of the issue has already been resolved and our engineers are at work to resolve this fully. We deeply regret any inconvenience.”
Airtel, which has over 1.9 crore subscribers in the Delhi circle alone, saw a flood of complaints from frustrated customers. Some users also noted that the outage appeared to extend beyond Airtel, with Jio and Vodafone-Idea subscribers reporting similar but less severe connectivity problems.
By late evening, Airtel confirmed that engineers were working round the clock to restore full services. While many customers reported partial improvements, voice and data issues were still being experienced intermittently.
The outage once again highlights the growing reliance on mobile connectivity in urban India — and how quickly disruptions can trigger nationwide conversations online.