There was some relief for Aircel customers across the State on Friday and connectivity was back to normal in many places.
Customers also started getting their porting out codes through SMS. However, in a few pockets of the State, people could not get signals.
Vinod Muthukrishnan, a techie, said that the connectivity was back and he also received his port out number. “The biggest challenge now is that other telecom service providers are not able to process our request and are giving us a waiting time of 7-10 days,” he said.
S. Kalidasan, a businessman, said that his connectivity was back but he could not send or receive SMS. Customers who have corporate connections are struggling to get a new SIM with other telecom service providers.
“I got my port out code from Aircel but since mine was a corporate connection the other service providers are asking for a letter from the company which gave me this number,” said R. Sirnivasan. He added, “I left that company a year ago and they allowed me to retain the SIM. I cannot go and ask them to issue a letter now,” he said.
On Friday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), came out with a statement which said, “TRAI came across newspaper reports on February 22 about breakdown of services of Aircel in Tamil Nadu.
“We were also informed by the TERM Cell of DoT about this. We immediately summoned the officers of Aircel and asked them to immediately restore the services.
“Aircel also informed that M/S GTL who were providing one-third tower sites to them have discontinued operation. All this was due to the news in media that Aircel was likely to file for bankruptcy. They have also informed that this has caused chaotic situation among subscribers, distributors etc. Aircel has informed that they are arranging intra circle roaming with other networks so that subscribers can get service and also port out to other networks.
“They have requested TRAI to allot additional codes for bulk porting of subscribers. TRAI is doing needful in the matter.”
