Three mobile network outage leaves thousands of customers across the UK unable to make calls or get online for TWO HOURS
- The first reports of problems with the Three network came in about 08:47 BST
- This had turned into a flood of reports from across the country by 09:15 BST
- Three didn’t give any details of what caused the national network outage
The Three mobile network went down on Wednesday, leaving thousands of customers unable to get online or make phone calls for up to two hours.
First reports of a fault with the network were submitted to the DownDetector website at about 08:30 BST, with a flood of complaints coming in by 09:15 BST.
The service had been restored by about 11:00 BST, with Three apologising to customers ‘for any inconvenience caused by the issue’.
Three didn’t give any details of what caused the outage but said about 10 per cent of customers had data issues and 19 per cent had issues with dropped calls.
The company claims the outage only lasted for 45 minutes, but some customers were still experiencing issues more than two hours after it first started.
The outage came as the government encourages people to return to working from home if they can, after a dramatic spike in coronavirus infections.
The Three mobile network was down across the UK for two hours on Wednesday, leaving thousands of customers unable to access the internet or make phone calls
Users were concerned about being able to effectively work from home with the network down
Users from across the country took to Twitter to express concern over the lack of connection, with many tweeting Three Support to ask about the outage.
Tom Penny tweeted: ‘No service in Leicestershire here for me or my wife, or Derby according to Twitter. Smells of a national outage but Three have not recognised any issues.’
Oliver Brett tweeted: ‘Vast swathes of north London with ZERO network coverage from @ThreeUK – absolute disgraceful when people are forced to work from home. Will be claiming for lost income and damages.’
Twitter users @MrPotHoleUK tweeted Three Support to query whether they were working on a mast in his area – as there was no mobile connection.
Matt Cheetham said the outage coincided with a problem with his Virgin Broadband.
‘Both my Virgin Media cable broadband and Three mobile signal died at the same time. I was in the middle of a call with work and I couldn’t even text to say what had happened. Lord. I just had to walk to connect to a different cell tower,’ he tweeted.
Other users expressed concern accessing support, with Jess Rose Dawes saying there were no live chat operators available on the website.
Of those reporting problems 52 per cent say it is with their mobile phone, 26 per cent are getting no signal and 21 per cent can’t get access to the mobile internet.
Three customers across the country expressed frustration over poor customer service and a lack of network access while they were trying to work from home
The network going down at the start of a work day caused problems for thousands of people working from home, including Amy Sparrow who tweeted that she had ‘no service’ again.
‘Hi @ThreeUK it’s becoming impossible to work from home when you have no service. This is becoming more and more common. what’s going on?’
Laura Victoria Rhodes says the service has been getting worse over the past few years, tweeting that she will be switching to another network in February.
‘Oh great @threeuk is completely down again. In a few years it’s gone from being a great phone network to a terrible one. Will be switching in Feb – is anyone I know on EE? Do they have decent network coverage in London?’
There have been a number of recent outages this month, including workplace communications tool Slack, Microsoft Outlook and Twitter.