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Civil unrest closes UK ISP's Indian call centre

24-hour curfew trumps 24-hour support

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 13th April 2006 09:27 GMT

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Civil unrest in Bangalore, India, has led to the closure of a call centre used by UK-based LLU ISP Be.

A 24-hour government-imposed curfew kicked in yesterday evening at 5.30pm (UK time) leaving Be's broadband punters without any cover.

In an email to customers yesterday evening the firm explained: "As you are aware, the majority of our Be agents in our call centre are based in India.

"We have just been informed that there is a 24 hour government enforced curfew in Bangalore due to local civil unrest and, as a result, we are unable to handle any calls or tickets from there as of 5.30pm today. Unfortunately this unrest has affected not only our main call centre, but also our back-up sites.

A spokesman for the ISP told El Reg that Be has drafted in a small team of contractors from the UK to provide emergency back-up.

As for Be's outsourced call centre staff in Bangalore, they "will return to work as soon as it's safe to go back", he said. ®

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