A series of blasts disrupted communications across London on Thursday as operators struggled to cope with a flood of calls, while they said the British government had not used its power to take over mobile networks.
Explosions hit the underground rail network and buses during rush hour on Thursday in a scene reminiscent of the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, when mobile phones were used to trigger explosions in trains.
Mobile users around London, many of them anxious to know the fate of friends, relatives and employees, found themselves unable to make or receive calls or send text messages.
Networks found it tough to cope with the surge in call volumes, and operators said heavy congestion meant that making and receiving calls required several attempts.
A spokesman for Orange, Britain’s number one mobile operator owned by France Telecom, said it had not been asked by the government to suspend access to its network, although provisions exist for authorities to take control in case of emergencies.
“What we can do, but have not done at this stage, is limit access. And we can do — just so that emergency services only will have access. We haven’t actually done that,” a spokeswoman for Vodafone said.
Operators said they were boosting capacity to enable their networks to handle the surge in calls, but mobile operators asked that people refrain from making unnecessary and lengthy phone calls.
O2 said it had doubled its network capacity, while Vodafone said it had also boosted capacity and had freed channels for use by emergency services.
Britain’s top fixed-line operator BT Group PLC said its network was coping with severe congestion.
“The fixed-line infrastructure is unharmed. However, due to the sheer volume of calls, the network is experiencing some congestion problems. It will take a little longer than usual for customer calls to get through,” BT said in a statement.