KARACHI, July 11: The subscribers of Mobilink were deprived of service here as the system collapsed on Tuesday. The signals on screens of mobile phones disappeared in the afternoon and the Mobilink subscribers could not make or receive calls for several hours.

A spokesman for Mobilink, Omar Manzoor, said: “Our optic fibre link in Karachi was damaged by a third party between 5pm and 6pm on Tuesday.” Without substantiating the allegation, he avoided even mentioning the exact nature of damage and its location.

When asked about any case lodged with the police by the company, he said: “Our first priority was to restore our system and it took us around two to three hours to restore the system which later started working properly."

Insisting that the damage was caused by a third party, Mr Omar said: “We have started internal inquiry to ascertain how the link was damaged.”

The subscribers who approached Dawn to know about the problem said that the service of Mobilink was deteriorating every passing day and the system collapsed on Tuesday rendering them helpless in making or receiving calls.

They alleged that the overloaded network usually made troubles for Mobilink but the company never bothered to entertain complaints instead it overcharged its customers and Pakistan Telecom Authority did not take any action against the company.