Memes Flood Twitter as Indian Customers of British Telco Vodafone Report Kind of an 'Outage'

British telecom player Vodafone announced the merger of its India operations with Indian telco Idea back in 2018. Headquartered in India’s financial capital Mumbai, the brand provides coverage to around 320 million subscribers. Earlier, in September, Vodafone-Idea rebranded their collective brand to be called "Vi" in India.

Vi customers from parts of India’s Maharashtra state – including Pune city – took to social networking platforms on Thursday complaining about connectivity problems in the mobile networks, causing inconvenience, especially in these pandemic-ridden times when all work depends on the Internet and phone calls.

While the telco is yet to acknowledge the issue, Vi customers from parts of India are also revealing that recharges that they have fuelled their SIM cards with since last night have also not been activated by the company as of now.

#vodafoneindia #Vodafonedown How am I suppose to contact customer care for any update and without network how does OTP works please explain. pic.twitter.com/rdNLxB2Fsx

— Ratandeep Singh Bhatia (@Ratandeep9774) October 15, 2020

#vodafoneindia pathetic service pls look into this.... Am using 4 different vodafone numbers and all 4 are facing the issue.... Vodafone sucks pic.twitter.com/Q5iVQMZ2ch

— Venkatesh R Rao (@VenkateshRRao1) October 15, 2020

#vodafoneindia has been Pathetic. Giganet is far away if your mobile data doesn't work. No network since midnight.
Vi Vi Vi karne se kuch nhi hoga

@reliancejio / @airtelindia I want to port my existing number from V!. Please assist.

— GrowthMachine (@healthyrichwise) October 15, 2020

With their meme caps on, trolls are flooding Twitter with hilarious reactions to this supposed network outage.

Vodafone or V! 😠😡😡😡😡😡😡
.
Why ?
Please return my money.#vodafoneindia #Vodafone_Idea #Vodafonedown #Vodafone #vodabucks pic.twitter.com/13dOkWjf8w

— Benyeamin Islam (@benyeamin20) October 15, 2020

meanwhile #vodafoneindia users to their network and internet : pic.twitter.com/6J5Ypeyr0X

— Mishka🇮🇳 (@mishkatillu) October 15, 2020

#vodafoneindia users since yesterday pic.twitter.com/yuGWPwfvCF

— Shubh 💙 (@shubhustagram) October 15, 2020

#vodafoneindia users in #Maharashtra
right now #Vodafonedown pic.twitter.com/bMVH5eI4kK

— khali_fukat (@rishikeshss) October 15, 2020

​The issue comes just a day after Vishal Vohra, the long-time chief Technology officer (CTO) of Vodafone-Idea, quit the company.

Earlier, in September, the UK-headquartered telco said it is likely to invest upwards of an extra $900 million (INR 6,600 crore) in India – not as “fresh equity”, but as part of a pre-merger agreement it signed with Idea.