Loop Mobile, Mumbai’s oldest mobile phone operator, is slowly winding up its operations, with the company closing down nearly half its outlets in the city. About half of its employees have also left the company for pastures new, even as its existing customers complained of services blackout.

Now the GSM operator has about 15 company-owned and operated stores in the city, a far cry from some 27 outlets during the start of this year.

The telecom service provider has closed down outlets in Churchgate, Andheri and Vashi in Navi Mumbai among other places, while the remaining would be closed down by this month-end.

Subscribers informed In a text message on October 28, the Mumbai-based operator had informed subscribers of shutting down services on November 29.

“We will gradually close down the remaining outlets,” Loop Mobile Chief Operating Officer Surya Mahadevan told BusinessLine .

In February, Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest operator by subscribers and revenue, had acquired Loop Mobile, excluding employees, to strengthen its presence in the metro.

While the financial terms were not disclosed, media reports pegged it at about ₹700 crore. The company’s employee base has also been eroding since the last two months.

At present, its headcount is somewhere in the region of 180, much lower than the 350 permanent staff at the time of the deal.

“The employees were also aware of the deal. They are also aware of the emerging business challenges,” Mahadevan said.

Voice, text blackout Many of the subscribers also complained of blackouts of both voice and SMSes, as Loop Mobile has not paid interconnect usage (IUC) charges and termination charges.

At the time of the deal, Loop Mobile had about 3.2 million users on a Home Location Register (database of permanent subscriber information) basis and about 1.5 million on a visitor location register (VLR) basis.

The company’s user base has fallen to about 1-1.2 million on a VLR, which is more accurate data, basis, he added.

“As far as IUC charges are concerned, MTNL and Vodafone India have barred voice calls, while MTNL, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India have barred text messages on their platforms,” Mahadevan said, adding, there were no issues with other operators.

Mahadevan said the company is still awaiting Department of Telecommunications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s guidance on the merger.

“We are hopeful of getting it soon,” he added.

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