Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK were unable to access internet and mobile phone services on Monday afternoon, according to reports on outage monitor Downdetector. The problems began around 3pm, with reports surging to over 135,000 by 3.20pm.
More than two-thirds of the reported incidents related to Vodafone's home broadband services, while almost a quarter involved mobile internet access. About 8% of customers reported being unable to make calls due to no mobile signal. Some users also reported issues accessing the Vodafone app and website.
The outage appeared widespread, with reports from cities including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester. Vodafone confirmed the issue affected broadband, 4G and 5G services, but said 2G voice calls and SMS were unaffected. The company apologised and stated that the network was recovering, though the cause of the outage was not disclosed. It is understood not to be related to a cyber-attack.
Downdetector still showed about 4,000 reports of problems shortly after 6pm. Vodafone has over 18 million UK customers, including more than 700,000 broadband users. The outage did not affect customers of Three UK, despite Vodafone and Three completing a merger of their British operations in May.
Other major networks, including BT, EE and VirginMediaO2, reported no issues. Telecoms expert Sabrina Hoque of Uswitch.com noted that customers may be entitled to compensation under Ofcom regulations if outages persist. For broadband, compensation of £9.76 per day applies after two days without service, while mobile compensation depends on circumstances.
