HCMC MobiFone users report yet another signal loss

At around 5 p.m. ride-hailing driver Hoang Van was unable to access the internet to use his driver’s app. Restarting the phone and reinstalling the SIM card did not solve the issue. There was no service bar on his phone at all.

“MobiFone’s loss of signal happened during rush hour when ride-hailing demand was high,” he said, “I could not reach my customers.”

Thao Nhu, an office worker, did not see any phone calls from her husband after she finished work. She later found out that he had been calling her for 30 minutes straight.

“I received no warning of the loss of signal,” she said. “Many of my colleagues had the same problem.”

MobiFone confirmed at 5.40 p.m. that there was a temporary signal disruption in HCMC, and that the company was working on it.

As of 6 p.m. the issues remained for many users, especially those in Districts 1 and 3.

Thanh Nhan, a spokesperson for a transport company, said that the unannounced signal disruption caused problems for end-users, as many drivers would not contact their customers, and some goods had to be returned to their storage locations as a result.

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. MobiFone responded with an apology and said that it was “upgrading and restarting its system, which affected users for a short period.”

A similar issue happened with MobiFone subscribers in September 2020 in the localities of HCMC, Vinh Long, Binh Dinh, Thai Binh, Da Nang, Ben Tre and Hanoi.

The company explained at the time that transmission errors had caused the issues. Everything was resolved within a day.

In 2018, users in Hanoi and HCMC reported signal losses, which were resolved within three hours.