A technical glitch has affected two of the most popular networks in the UK.
Vodafone and EE both have had major outages overnight, with some customers still facing issues on Tuesday, September 5.
Vodafone has told the BBC that there are no issues with its own network right now, but according to signal checker DownDetector, some have faced problems yesterday and again another spike was reported this morning.
Customers are also unable to call numbers registered with the EE network, and EE have since apologised for any inconvenience caused. The provider said it was working now to try and solve the problem as quickly as possible.
A spokesperson for EE said: “We’re aware that some of our mobile customers are unable to make or receive calls from a Vodafone number. We’re working quickly to resolve this and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
EE claimed earlier that calls to other networks, mobile data, and text messages were not affected.
It appears the problems were solely between the Vodafone and EE networks as some customers were unable to ring each other. There was also an issue for those customers who had previously transferred their number from EE to Vodafone.
Vodafone confirmed that numbers transferred or “ported” from EE to any new network, including Three, O2 and Vodafone, were affected because three of the digits in the mobile number still identify them as “EE” numbers. That meant that even though they are no longer EE customers, calls are briefly routed through EE’s infrastructure.
While those former EE customers could call within their new network, calls to other networks were affected by the problems at EE, Vodafone said.
On Monday, September 4, customers of both companies resported their network was down in the evening, but as of Tuesday, there were still some issues being reported on Downdetector.
A total of 95 per cent of the problems with Vodafone were for mobile phone use and by 9.30am this morning there had been 138 reports made that phones were not working.
Six per cent of customers were also struggling with landline and mobile internet.
Problems for EE peaked on Monday, with nearly 700 reports made on the Downdetector site. However, as of 9.30am on Tuesday, that had decreased to almost 100 people experiencing difficulties.
