Mobile signals drop across Nagpur markets and colonies ahead of Diwali shopping rush

With the festival season under way, people in Nagpur are struggling with mobile network problems. Complaints are coming in from the city's markets and residential areas that the signal keeps disappearing, leaving many residents badly inconvenienced.

Crowds have begun to throng the markets for Diwali and other major festival shopping. In the middle of that rush, staying in touch with family and friends has become the biggest difficulty.

The areas named include the market areas of Sitabuldi, Itwari, Gandhibagh, Dharampeth, Sadar, Jaripatka, Mahal, Kamal Chowk and Sakkardara. Mobile signals also drop suddenly in residential colonies. For the past few days, repeated call drops, voices cutting out in the middle of a conversation and very slow internet have become common.

According to people familiar with the workings of mobile companies, data and voice calling traffic rises several times over during these festival days. People make video calls to exchange greetings, share photos and videos on social media, and use digital payments heavily while shopping in the markets.

However, the capacity of mobile towers is limited. When the load rises this high, the network infrastructure cannot bear the pressure and the whole system buckles.

Shopkeepers and customers are the worst affected. When people try to pay online while shopping in the market, they get a message saying the server is down or there is no network. Payments get stuck, causing great inconvenience to both shopkeepers and customers.

Several more major festivals are still to come, when digital transactions in the markets will take place on a large scale. The problem of disappearing mobile signals could therefore disrupt business worth crores of rupees.