As Chennai witnessed one of worst downpours in the past several decades, the damage caused by the floods resulted in huge losses for many sectors, including telecom, with the operators facing around Rs 300 crore in losses.
Of the total estimated losses for telecom operators, Rs 100 crore is due to network restoration and Rs 200 crore is in the form of revenue losses over the past week, according to Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
The natural calamity has forced telecom equipment manufacturers -- Finland's Nokia and China's Huawei -- to halt operations in their plants located in the India's fifth largest city.
While Nokia has suspended production of 3G and 4G gear located in the outskirts of Chennai, Huawei said that the "flood situation had affected its Chennai factory", where it produces telecom network gear for export purposes.
Nokia said that the flood situation in the city has forced it "to temporarily stop production at its factory" over the past few days to "prioritise safety of its employees and equipment". Currently, Nokia has around 1,300 people working at its Chennai plant and the factory caters to 3G and 4G network gear needs in India and 26 nations across the globe.
"Nokia India is also changing inbound and outbound shipping points to Bangalore instead of Chennai and taking steps to organise alternate shipments of raw material to ensure minimal disruption to production in times of crisis like this," a company spokesman told The Economic Times.
On the other hand, Huawei said that the company had "established emergency support teams to ensure staff safety, equipment safety, network and services safety, as well as to communicate with customers in response to the heavy flooding in Chennai".
However, China's top network gear maker did not "confirm" suspending operations at its Chennai factory.
The floods have caused severe damage to infrastructure of telecom operators adversely impacting their network, making Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India to struggle to continue providing services.
