DTAC hit with network outage

Thailand’s number two telco, DTAC, yesterday suffered a major network outage that left many of its users without the ability to make or receive calls for most of the day.

 

In a statement, DTAC's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Darmp Sukontasap apologised for the incident, blaming it on a network upgrade. An technical problem occurred when migrating data from one system to another late in the morning and this affected a number of users. He said that by 3pm the network was up and running as normal.

 

A vendor not directly involved in the upgrade who asked not to be named, explained that the outage happened when the core network was swapped over from the old Nokia-Siemens Network core to a new Ericsson system.

 

Many phones had to be turned off and on to be reconnected. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the outage was not confined to Bangkok.

 

It is unclear how many users were affected but DTAC's Facebook page is flooded with page after page with thousands of users venting their frustration, anger and also support at the outage.

 

No attempt at a response was made by DTAC’s social media team and it was clear from the comments that its call centre was also overwhelmed.

 

DTAC, Ericsson and NSN were contacted but none responded by the time of going to press.