Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers across the UK were unable to access the internet or make mobile phone calls on Monday afternoon, following a major network outage. The company apologised and said services were 'recovering' after reports of disruption surged.
Problems began being reported on outage monitor Downdetector from around 3pm, with more than 135,000 reports by 3.20pm. Over two-thirds of incidents related to fixed-line broadband, while nearly a quarter involved mobile internet access. About 8% of customers reported being unable to make calls due to a lack of mobile signal.
The outage affected customers in major cities including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester. Vodafone confirmed the issue was limited to its UK network and was not linked to a cyber-attack. Services returned late on Monday afternoon, but the cause was not disclosed.
A VodafoneThree spokesperson said: 'This afternoon the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services. 2G voice calls and SMS messaging were unaffected and the network is now recovering. We apologise for any inconvenience this caused our customers.'
Vodafone has over 18 million UK customers and more than 700,000 broadband subscribers. The outage did not affect customers of Three UK, which merged with Vodafone in May. Other networks, including BT, EE and VirginMediaO2, reported no issues.
Telecoms expert Sabrina Hoque of Uswitch.com reminded customers that under Ofcom regulations, those without broadband for more than two days may be entitled to £9.76 per day compensation. Mobile signal outage compensation depends on circumstances, but refunds or account credits may be available.
