{
  "id": 6778822,
  "title": "Poor phone network leaves UP villagers fuming. They tie technician to tower",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/poor-phone-network-leaves-up-villagers-fuming-they-tie-technician-to",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-11T17:02:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/fatehpur-villagers-tie-telecom-technician-mobile-tower-network-woes-10874230/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In a village in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur, villagers grew increasingly frustrated with their poor mobile connectivity and took drastic measures on Thursday. They allegedly kidnapped a telecom technician, Aditya Bhan Singh, and tied him to an internet tower in Hardauli village. The police were alerted to the incident, but by the time they arrived, the technician had been released. A video of the event quickly circulated on social media, showing Singh in a rope tied to the tower with youth and children nearby.\n\nThe police identified seven men who were present at the scene, six of whom were subsequently arrested for wrongful confinement and breach of peace. Station House Officer Shailesh Kumar Singh revealed that villagers had been experiencing connectivity issues for the past two years. According to their accounts, they had been paying for 5G data packages but were only receiving 4G connectivity, with their phone signals frequently dropping after a while.\n\nDuring their investigation, the police discovered that locals claimed no staff had visited the tower in the previous three months. Singh, who had only recently started working for the company, had been informed that tying the technician to the tower was meant to send a message to senior officials, prompting other staff to come and resolve the problem. Fatehpur Superintendent of Police Abhimanyu Manglik confirmed that an FIR had been filed following the incident, which originated from a video shared on social media. The video demonstrated that the 5G network was unavailable in the area, and the villagers claimed they had taken the technician hostage in response to the issue. Further legal action is being taken in the case.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 4,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "NDTV - India News",
        "title": "Angry Over Bad Mobile Network, Villagers Tie Telecom Firm's Technician To Tower",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/angry-over-bad-mobile-network-villagers-tie-telecom-firms-technician",
        "published": "2026-09-11T11:22:07.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Gulf News",
        "title": "Poor mobile signal for two years? Villagers tie telecom worker to tower",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/poor-mobile-signal-for-two-years-villagers-tie-telecom-worker-to-tower",
        "published": "2026-09-11T16:56:22.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Hindu",
        "title": "Villagers tie up telecom technician over 5G network outage in Fatehpur, six arrested",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/12/villagers-tie-up-telecom-technician-over-5g-network-outage-in",
        "published": "2026-09-12T08:00:02.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}