Hyderabad woke up this week to a strange silence. Not the quiet of empty streets, but the silence of disconnected lives. Broadband connections went dead, cable TV screens froze mid-frame, and lakhs of residents suddenly found themselves cut off from the digital world they depend on every day. The culprit: a city-wide drive to remove dangling wires and unauthorised cables from electricity poles.
Outage spreads across the city
From Banjara Hills to Kukatpally, Ameerpet to Madhapur, the blackout cut through neighbourhoods like a sweeping storm. Homes lost internet for work and study, shopkeepers struggled with failing UPI transactions, and even hospitals reported patchy connectivity.
“I couldn’t send a simple payment for groceries this morning,” said Shilpa, a resident of Kompally. “The shopkeeper asked for cash, but who carries cash anymore?” Her frustration mirrors the mood of the city.
Reports suggest that the outage has touched nearly every major pocket of Hyderabad, leaving thousands of households with no reliable access to digital services. The impact is particularly severe for IT workers and students, many of whom rely completely on broadband to function.
Why the crackdown began
The clean-up drive by Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) did not come out of thin air. Authorities had been under pressure after a string of tragic incidents linked to unsafe overhead wires. In one shocking case, decorative structures during a religious procession came into contact with low-hanging electric lines, resulting in multiple deaths.
That tragedy forced the government to act. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka instructed the power utility to remove hazardous and unauthorised cables without delay. TGSPDCL teams fanned out across the city, cutting down a mix of electric, internet and cable-TV lines.
The intention was safety. The execution, however, sparked chaos.
Residents voice frustration
For people caught in the middle, the official explanation offers little comfort.
“I have a deadline tomorrow and can’t connect to my office VPN,” said Rajesh, an IT employee based in Ameerpet. “Who will take responsibility if I lose my project?”
Students are no less affected. Colleges may have reopened, but assignments and classes still require online access. “I missed my live lecture today,” said Priya, a final-year engineering student. “My professors just assume we’re online, but I’m sitting here staring at a dead router.”
What stings most residents is the lack of warning. Cables were reportedly cut overnight or in early morning hours, leaving no time for families to prepare. Many feel the authorities should have given prior notice and coordinated with service providers instead of swinging into action unilaterally.
Service providers push back
Internet and cable operators are equally unhappy. According to industry associations, they had been requesting structured discussions on relocating or undergrounding lines for years. The sudden removal of live fibre without coordination, they argue, is both costly and unnecessary.
“Broadband is no longer a luxury, it’s a utility like water and power,” said one provider, requesting anonymity. “If authorities treat it casually, the public will suffer and the city’s reputation will take a hit.”
Some providers are already exploring legal options, citing earlier court directions that barred indiscriminate removal of communication cables. The tension between government enforcement and industry operators is only likely to grow if the outages continue.
Planning failures come to light
What is striking is how little thought appears to have gone into execution. Safety is a legitimate priority—no one denies that dangling wires pose risks. But removing them without a coordinated plan has created a new form of crisis.
- No timeline: Residents were not told which areas would be cleared and when.
- No coordination: ISPs were reportedly not consulted before fibre lines were cut.
- No restoration plan: After cables were removed, there was no system to reconnect households or provide alternatives.
- No priority zones: Hospitals, banks and essential services faced the same disruption as everyone else.
The result is not just inconvenience, but a loss of trust. For a city known globally as an IT hub, the sight of households scrambling for mobile hotspots and shopkeepers dusting off old card readers is both ironic and damaging.
The road ahead
The crisis has forced a conversation that Hyderabad can no longer avoid: how to balance safety with connectivity.
One option is to fast-track underground cabling in congested neighbourhoods. It is expensive, but many experts believe it is the only sustainable way to protect both lives and services. Another is to enforce stricter coordination between utilities and internet providers, ensuring that safety drives do not spiral into mass outages.
For now, temporary fixes will have to do. Providers are working overtime to restore fibre lines, but residents are warned to expect more intermittent disruptions as the clean-up continues.
Bigger than Hyderabad
What is happening here is not unique. Cities across India struggle with the same problem of unplanned overhead cabling. Electric poles have long been treated as free real estate by operators, leading to messy, unsafe clusters of wires. Hyderabad’s experience may serve as a cautionary tale for other urban centres.
Will the city emerge safer and more organised from this crisis, or will it be remembered as a disruption that left lakhs stranded without digital lifelines? That depends on how quickly the authorities, service providers and residents find common ground.
For now, Hyderabad waits—for its screens to light up again, and for a system that does not trade safety for connectivity.