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Three investigating loss of phone services | Three investigating loss of phone services |
(30 minutes later) | |
Mobile network Three has acknowledged it is experiencing "technical difficulties with voice, text and data", leaving many customers offline. | Mobile network Three has acknowledged it is experiencing "technical difficulties with voice, text and data", leaving many customers offline. |
The problems appear to have started on Wednesday evening, according to the Down Detector website. | The problems appear to have started on Wednesday evening, according to the Down Detector website. |
Customers across the UK have taken to social media to complain about the loss of service. | Customers across the UK have taken to social media to complain about the loss of service. |
Three apologised for the problem and said it was "sorting this out right now". | Three apologised for the problem and said it was "sorting this out right now". |
"Our engineers are working to fix the issue and the service is returning to normal, and we expect it to be resolved over the course of the day. | |
"We advise our customers to turn their phones off and on or turn airplane mode on and off, which may resolve the issue," it said in a statement. | |
The problems, which are nationwide, started after some maintenance work on Three's network infrastructure. | The problems, which are nationwide, started after some maintenance work on Three's network infrastructure. |
It is not sure how many of its 10 million customers are affected. | It is not sure how many of its 10 million customers are affected. |
On Wednesday, rival network O2 switched on its next-generation 5G service in a number of UK cities. | On Wednesday, rival network O2 switched on its next-generation 5G service in a number of UK cities. |
Three tagged O2 in a tweet saying: "Oi, did you unplug our network so you could plug in your 5G? not cool guys." | Three tagged O2 in a tweet saying: "Oi, did you unplug our network so you could plug in your 5G? not cool guys." |
One customer said the joke would have been "cute" if the problems had not been ongoing for more than nine hours. | One customer said the joke would have been "cute" if the problems had not been ongoing for more than nine hours. |
So many customers tried to access the status checker on Three's website that it was temporarily unavailable on Thursday morning. | So many customers tried to access the status checker on Three's website that it was temporarily unavailable on Thursday morning. |
A queuing system has been switched on, to limit access to the tool. | A queuing system has been switched on, to limit access to the tool. |
"History shows that once service is restored people quickly forget about the issues," said Ben Wood, an analyst at the CCS Insight consultancy. | "History shows that once service is restored people quickly forget about the issues," said Ben Wood, an analyst at the CCS Insight consultancy. |
"The challenge for Three UK will be getting its network back online reliably. Often it can take time for things to stabilise after such a massive outage, which can lead to intermittent service for a period of time after the original problems." | "The challenge for Three UK will be getting its network back online reliably. Often it can take time for things to stabilise after such a massive outage, which can lead to intermittent service for a period of time after the original problems." |