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As it happenedended

Three network down - as it happened: Latest news as mobile provider hints at way to fix signal and internet after it stops working

Andrew Griffin,Jon Sharman
Thursday 17 October 2019 14:15 BST
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Three Mobile stops working for customers across UK

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Three’s UK mobile network has been down for several hours, pushing users on to social media to complain – if they are lucky enough to have WiFi service.

Details on what caused the outage were not immediately available as Three’s website is also down, and its Twitter accounts silent early on Thursday morning.

The Independent has contacted Three for more information.

Please allow a moment for the blog to load

Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the nationwide Three mobile service outage.

Jon Sharman17 October 2019 08:07
Jon Sharman17 October 2019 08:08

The customer support team on Twitter has replied to its first complaint, but users aren't happy.

A customer had complained they were unable to validate their email address.

Jon Sharman17 October 2019 08:11

Not everyone is furious about the outage, however.

Jon Sharman17 October 2019 08:12

Some Three users appear to be able to access broadband.

Jon Sharman17 October 2019 08:21

Three's Twitter account is still suggesting that it is a problem with individual users' phones or SIM cards – which doesn't seem to line up with the fact that the issue is being reported all across the country, all at the same time.

Andrew Griffin17 October 2019 08:24

Reports of issues are rising rapidly, according to the site Down Detector. (Though that might just be a consequence of people waking up and realising their phones have stopped working.) 

Andrew Griffin17 October 2019 08:25

Three support account replies to customers

The Three Support account has started replying to affected customers, but only directly. Neither the official account or the dedicated support account have tweeted publicly about the issue at all.

Andrew Griffin17 October 2019 08:31

Issues seen across entire country

The issue is happening basically everywhere, according to Down Detector.

Andrew Griffin17 October 2019 08:32

Three account sends strange sassy tweets featuring GIFs

The Three support account is still sending sassy tweets:

And denying the issue is network-wide, suggesting instead that it's an issue with people's phones:

Andrew Griffin17 October 2019 08:36

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