Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK experienced service disruption on Monday afternoon, with reports of internet and mobile call failures flooding in from around 3pm. According to outage monitor Downdetector, reports peaked at over 135,000 by 3.20pm, with more than two-thirds related to home broadband services.
Almost a quarter of reported incidents involved mobile internet access, while about 8% of customers reported being unable to make calls due to a lack of mobile signal. Some users also reported difficulties accessing the Vodafone app and website. The outage appeared widespread, affecting cities including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester.
Vodafone confirmed that connectivity began to return late Monday afternoon, but did not disclose the cause of the outage. A spokesperson for VodafoneThree stated: “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.”
The outage was limited to Vodafone’s UK customers and is not believed to be related to a cyber-attack. Downdetector still showed about 4,000 reports shortly after 6pm. Competitors BT, EE and VirginMediaO2 reported no issues, and Three UK customers were unaffected.
Sabrina Hoque, a telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, reminded customers that under Ofcom regulations, compensation may be available for prolonged outages. “If your broadband connection goes down for more than two days, you could be entitled to compensation of £9.76 for each calendar day that the service is not repaired,” she said. For mobile signal outages, compensation depends on circumstances, but customers may be eligible for a refund or account credit.
