Three down: Mobile network completely stops working as UK customers report signal failure
No details are available on provider’s website, main Twitter page or its support account
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Your support makes all the difference.Three's UK network has broken, leaving people without phone signal or internet connections for hours.
There appears to be no fix for the problem, which is being reported across the world and on a variety of different phones.
Three has admitted on Twitter that there is an "issue" affecting "some users" and that it was working to solve it, after initially denying there was any network-wide problem.
:: Click here for the latest updates on Three's major outage.
"We do have an issue which is impacting voice and data services for some customers at the moment," it wrote to affected users that complained to its Twitter account. "We're working hard to get everything back to normal as soon as we can."
It had initially been suggesting that the problem is with individual devices or SIM cards – despite the fact the problem is being reported everywhere.
No error message or alert was given about any outage, leaving people unable to get an internet connection, text messages or phone calls, and without any notification that there is a problem.
Three's website is currently down for “essential maintenance”, according to a message posted on a static page that directed users to the company’s online store.
No details were available on either its main Twitter page or its support account.
The Independent has contacted Three for more information.
One Twitter user wrote: “Been down since half 11 last night in Burnley, working nights with basically no phone to use is painful. Wouldn’t even mind if they just communicated with us!”
And another said: “Three is completely down in Newcastle. Thank god I can log into the work WiFi so I can moan about it on Twitter.”
Last night, Three’s customer service representatives on Twitter responded to complaints that users had no phone signal by suggesting the problem may have been related to their devices or SIM cards.
Ofcom, the regulator, says that mobile providers “should be able to establish reasonably quickly what has gone wrong and, if it is a network service issue, tell you how and when it will be fixed”.
“Depending on the circumstances, it may be appropriate for your provider to offer you some money back while repairs are being carried out,” its website says.
New rules mean that mobile users should be given those refunds automatically, rather than being forced to ask for them.
Three says it has more than 10 million customers in the UK and employs 4,000 people.
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