Yahoo News Three network down: Thousands of UK mobile customers hit by network meltdown
Thousands of Three UK mobile customers have been hit by a network meltdown.
DownDetector, a website which tracks outages, reported nearly 8,000 mobile phone users were without coverage at around 7.30am on Thursday.
The network appears to have been experiencing problems from just before midnight on Wednesday.
A map showing the areas that have been affected show customers in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Nottingham were among those hit.
Three network let me down. I basically work from my phone. So have to drive for an hour back home. Got to be compensated lost of £200 at least. pic.twitter.com/RzVAC2J7q1
— Papa (@100cultures)
Phone users took to Twitter to say they had been left with no signal and were unable to access the Internet on their phones since midnight.
Some reported they had been without service for up to three hours.
Hi @ThreeUK - your data network is down across the whole country. Maybe it’s worth you sending out a little tweet or something to let us know what’s going on? #three #threedown #threenetwork #ThreeUK
— Andrew Keates (@andrewkeates)
One person wrote: "Three network let me down. I basically work from my phone. So have to drive for an hour back home. Got to be compensated lost of £200 at least."
While another said: "When you relly (sic) on your mobile data for work and it was down for 4 and a half hours😒😒 thanks Three network."
When you relly on your mobile data for work and it was down for 4 and a half hours😒😒 thanks Three network
— Chii (@RhiiTv)
One person said they had a different phone for when outages happen: "Three UK, appears to be down across the whole of the UK. This is why I have a second phone on a different network, but it's still a right royal pain in the bum. Even their websites down".
Yup been down since last night, I need my mobile network as its critical for work , no updates at all from three themselves it's beyond a joke now
— christopher james ryan photography (@ChrisRyanPhotos)
One person called the situation a "joke": "Yup been down since last night, I need my mobile network as its critical for work, no updates at all from three themselves it's beyond a joke now."
In a statement, Three UK said: "“Three is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our services across voice, text and data which means that some customers will be experiencing an intermittent service.
"Our engineers are working on the issue now to fix the problem as soon as possible. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers.”
As well as its mobile network, Three's website was also unavailable on Thursday morning, instead displaying a message which said it was down for "essential maintenance".
The incident came on the day another mobile operator - O2 - became the latest to begin the rollout of its next-generation 5G network.
