Mobile Disruptions Hit Bulgaria Again as A1 Confirms Nationwide Network Issues

Sofia, Bulgaria – Bulgarian mobile operator A1 has confirmed widespread technical difficulties across its network, affecting voice calls and SMS services nationwide.

The disruption began earlier today and lasted for nearly an hour, leaving many users temporarily without mobile connectivity.

In a statement published on its official website, A1 acknowledged the outage and said that the issues affected both outgoing and incoming calls, as well as text messaging services.

The company assured customers that technical teams were “working actively” to restore normal network functions and offered an apology for the inconvenience caused.

“The disruptions impacted various parts of the country,” A1 stated. “Our specialists are making every effort to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”

The outage was first reported by BNR (Bulgarian National Radio), which noted that users began experiencing problems earlier in the day, with the disruption persisting for close to an hour before services started gradually returning.

This marks the second major telecommunications disruption in less than a week in Bulgaria. Just four days ago, Vivacom customers faced a similar scenario, with widespread failures in both voice and internet services.

That incident prompted the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Transport and Communications, Kiril Dobrev, to intervene.

Dobrev requested a formal report from the Commission for the Regulation of Communications (CRC), the national regulator, asking for an explanation of the Vivacom outage.

He also called for recommendations on how to strengthen Bulgaria’s response to failures in critical communications infrastructure.

“The frequency of these outages raises serious questions about the resilience of our telecom networks,” Dobrev said at the time. “We need robust mechanisms to ensure uninterrupted service, especially in times of emergency.”

While the cause of A1’s disruption has not yet been officially confirmed, industry experts suggest that such incidents may point to deeper systemic vulnerabilities in the country’s mobile infrastructure, possibly linked to software issues, capacity overloads, or equipment failures.

Customer frustration has been growing, particularly given the importance of uninterrupted mobile service in modern daily life and business operations.

Many took to social media during the A1 outage to voice their concerns, with some expressing worry about the lack of timely updates.

“Two outages in less than a week across different operators is alarming,” said Teodora Ivanova, a Sofia resident. “It makes you wonder if the networks can be trusted during a real emergency.”

The CRC is expected to include the A1 incident in its upcoming review, which was initially focused on the Vivacom failure.

With pressure mounting from both lawmakers and the public, the regulator may propose new requirements for redundancy, transparency, and incident response in the telecom sector.

As of late afternoon, A1 reported that most services had been restored, although some users in remote areas may still experience intermittent issues. The company has pledged to keep customers informed and to conduct a full internal review once normal operations resume.

The recent wave of outages is casting a spotlight on the reliability of mobile networks in Bulgaria, underscoring the urgent need for regulatory scrutiny and infrastructure upgrades.