EE, O2, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile down: Mass outage leaves people unable to text or make calls
All major UK networks suffer issues
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.UK phone networks suffered from a major outage on Tuesday, with customers from EE, O2, Vodafone, Three and GiffGaff all reporting issues.
The reason for the networks going down was not immediately apparent but it came as millions of workers across the country stayed home to work under government guidelines to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Some customers complained that they were unable to send or receive text messages, while others said they were having difficulties getting online.
Customers throughout the UK are affected, according to the website DownDetector, with London and North-West England the worst affected regions.
"There was a relatively short-lived problem this morning with around 9 per cent if voice calls on 3G not getting through," a spokesperson for Vodafone told The Independent. "All the operators are working together on this matter."
O2 also acknowledged that it experienced problems with its service and said it was investigating.
A spokesperson said that a National Emergency Alert for Telecommunications and Ofcom was being arranged to determine the route of the issue.
"Today the industry experienced an issue that meant some calls between different networks were unable to connect," the spokesperson said.
"Specifically, O2, Vodafone and Three were unable to connect to EE and EE customers were unable to connect to O2, Vodafone and Three.
"At a time when the country needs connectivity most, it is important we work together rather than pointing fingers before facts have been determined."
The issue appeared to stem from the amount of people using their phones and devices for remote working purposes, causing the networks to overload.
Online working platform Microsoft Teams suffered a similar outage on Monday morning as a result of a huge influx of new users. All services have since returned to normal.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments