Users in HCM City could not call, text or use 3G and 4G services during the late afternoon and evening of January 4. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — After a large-scale network failure in some areas of HCM City, MobiFone restored service at about 10 pm on January 4.

Around 5 pm, many mobile users of the MobiFone network in some districts in HCM City reported a loss of signal, which prevented them from making phone calls and accessing the internet.

Many subscribers said there was no service bar on their phone at all.

“Around 5 pm, the MobiFone network flickered continuously, and sometimes lost signal completely. 4G didn’t work, the signal bar showed the word 3G but in fact there was no connection. I have called the switchboard many times but I can't connect," said Thanh Tâm (in Tân Bình District).

He said several of his friends in District 8 who use MobiFone also had the same issue.

Thu Vân, a MobiFone subscriber in District 7 also faced a similar situation. And by 6:50 pm, she still could not receive calls or access the Internet, so she had to use the company's wifi.

Some fanpages on Facebook also posted this problem and quickly attracted thousands of comments confirming the incident. Many people said at first, they thought it was a problem with their devices, so they tried to restart their phones several times to solve the issue but to no avail.

Customers said MobiFone’s loss of signal happened during the afternoon rush hour when people leave work and parents go to pick up their children, causing inconvenience to them. In addition, the incidence also causes financial damage to mobile-based services, such as delivery, sales, and ride-hailing services.

As of 7:30 pm the issues remained for many users in many districts.

Around 10pm, MobiFone announced that the problem had been resolved.

On the evening of the same day, MobiFone said that its system had a local congestion phenomenon in late afternoon of January 4 so customers in some areas encountered call and data issues. MobiFone was deploying measures to resolve the problem and apologised to customers.

This is the second time in three months MobiFone experienced a major signal disruption in the southern region.

On October 24 last year, a number of subscribers reported the same issue. At that time, MobiFone responded with an apology and said that it was "upgrading and restarting its system, which affected users for a short period."

According to White Book of Việt Nam Information and Communication Technology 2021, MobiFone is the third largest operator in Việt Nam (after Viettel and VinaPhone), with about 24 million subscribers. — VNS