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

Three Mobile stops working for customers across UK

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.

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Key Points

• Problems affecting entire country
• Reports of issues rapidly rising
• Three account sends sassy tweets about coverage problems
• But also admits there is an issue hitting 'some users'

[17 October 2019 08:36 · Andrew Griffin]

Three acknowledges problems

But it has also started admitting there is an issue affecting "some customers":

[17 October 2019 08:41 · Andrew Griffin]

Outage reminiscent of O2 issues

The issue is reminiscent of the great O2 outage of December 2018. That was eventually traced to a software update, and the phone network blamed another company.

You can relive that here:

[17 October 2019 08:43 · Andrew Griffin]

Reports of problems rapidly rising

The number of reports of problems continues to rapidly rise on Down Detector. (Though, again, that might be because most people have been asleep.)

[17 October 2019 08:51 · Andrew Griffin]

Official account starts to respond to problems

Three is yet to publicly tweet about the outage, but is now reliably responding to everyone that complains to say that it is aware of the problem and apologises for any inconvenience.

[17 October 2019 08:52 · Andrew Griffin]

Three continues to blame phones and SIMs

That said, the account is still telling some people who complain that the issue could be with their phone:

[17 October 2019 08:54 · Andrew Griffin]

Three finally publicly acknowledges issues

The main Three UK account has finally sent a public tweet, acknowledging the outage.

[17 October 2019 08:56 · Andrew Griffin]

Official tweet prompts furious reaction

That post has not gone down well: more than 200 replies in the first 10 minutes it's been up.

Most are complaining about the fact that it took so long to acknowledge the fault – it's been nearly half a day since the issues started – and taking issue with the fact that the tweet describes the problems as leading to "intermittent service", when plenty of people are complaining that it is simply not working at all.

[17 October 2019 08:59 · Andrew Griffin]

Official account suggests using other people's phones as a hotspot

As it continues to respond to complaints about the outage, one Three representative has suggested using someone else's phone – presumably one on another network – as a hotspot, to get on the internet.

[17 October 2019 09:02 · Andrew Griffin]

​Issues could be resolving

The number of reports going in to outage tracking website Down Detector appear to have started falling. That could mean that the network is coming back online. But it could also mean that people are tired of complaining...

[17 October 2019 09:07 · Andrew Griffin]

Apology tweet receives furious reaction

Three's tweet – the first public admission there was a problem – was posted 20 minutes ago and has now received more than 400 replies. They largely look like this: