Commuters travelling on Mumbai's Aqua Line 3 metro have been without reliable mobile connectivity for weeks. Now, India's three major telecom operators are pushing for a common infrastructure model to fix the problem for good.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have jointly written to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), raising concerns over its latest tender for in-building solutions (IBS) across the Aqua Line 3 network.
The crisis began when MMRCL terminated its contract with Saudi Arabia-based Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems (ACES), which had installed the shared IBS infrastructure across the underground corridor. With the infrastructure pulled out, the 33.5-km underground stretch from Colaba to SEEPZ turned into a digital dead zone.
MMRCL responded by floating a fresh tender on March 20, 2026. The telecom operators, however, refused to cooperate. The telecom service providers stated they would not issue comfort letters to any potential third-party vendors under the new tender, effectively boycotting the process.
The operators argue the real fix requires cutting out the middleman entirely. They maintain that the only way to fast-track restoration is for MMRCL to allow them to build and manage the network themselves, rather than route services through a high-cost vendor.
In their joint letter, the operators also backed Jio's infrastructure push. Airtel and Vi extended full support for granting right-of-way (ROW) permission to Reliance Jio, stating it would allow operators to install a new IBS network and also buy and use the existing ACES infrastructure to restore services immediately.
As an interim measure, the operators proposed offering connectivity to the ACES IBS network by deploying their own equipment.
Commuters have flagged serious safety concerns over the blackout, particularly for emergencies where connectivity is critical. With no resolution in sight, passengers on one of Mumbai's busiest transit lines continue to travel without mobile access underground.