VIJAYAWADA: `Error in connection' was the message that greeted many mobile phone users on the New Year day. Be it BSNL, Airtel, Idea or Reliance, the plight of users was the same for about 12 hours. The problem began around 11.30 p.m. on Sunday and persisted till 11.30 a.m. on Monday.

Except a lucky few, many users could not convey their wishes to their loved ones at appropriate time - dot midnight on Sunday, owing to `traffic congestion' in different mobile phone networks.

"Cellular phone disappointed me a lot on the first day of the New Year. I could not call any one and even send an SMS since morning," said V. Rajamani, a social worker from Gurunanak Nagar and a subscriber of Reliance India Mobile service, on Monday.

Despite several efforts, she could not contact her elder sister in Hyderabad over mobile phone in the first half of the day.

"I tried relentlessly and greeted her only in the afternoon," she said.

Messages

Though many people began sending messages with New Year greetings to their friends from Sunday afternoon itself, mobile phones stopped working from midnight.

"I wondered why none of my friends greeted me. Only when a bunch of messages flooded my handset in the afternoon that I realised there was a problem in the network," said G. Sudha Priyadarsini, a postgraduate student, who is a subscriber for Airtel mobile service.

"I was unable to give replies to the messages I received from my friends. I was irked to see a note stating `message sending failed' on my mobile phone," said L.V. Kumar, an employee in Southern Power Distribution Company Limited and a subscriber of Idea cellular service.

`Traffic congestion'

The BSNL's CellOne customers too had a tough time, as there was frequent trouble with the network from Sunday evening.

"What is the use of mobile phone when it does not work during important occasions?" asked A. Rama Murthy, a resident of New Postal Colony. Deputy general manager of CellOne K. Rajasekhar said that the problem occurred due to increased `traffic congestion' during the festivities.

"Repeated dialling also contributed to the chaos. Whether it is BSNL or any other service provider, it is difficult to ensure free flow of call traffic when every customer uses the phone during a particular hour," he explained.

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