CHENNAI: Mobile users across Tamil Nadu experienced major inconvenience on Tuesday following a widespread disruption in Airtel’s network services. The outage, which lasted over an hour, affected several cities including Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Tenkasi, and Nagapattinam.

The sudden disruption left customers unable to make calls or access mobile data, sparking a flood of complaints on social media. Many users reported a complete loss of signal and expressed frustration over the lack of communication during the outage, according to a Daily Thanthi report.

Business owners were among the hardest hit, citing losses due to the communication breakdown. “We couldn’t reach clients or complete digital transactions. This has severely impacted today’s operations,” said a small business owner in Chennai.

In response to the backlash, Airtel’s customer service team assured users that the issue would be resolved within four hours.

The outage coincided with the company’s quarterly financial disclosure, which revealed a 3% decline in net profit for the fourth quarter, amounting to Rs 11,022 crore.

"Airtel is currently experiencing a temporary network outage in parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Our technical teams are actively working to resolve the issue and restore services at the earliest," said an Airtel spokesperson.