The Three UK network was down earlier today, with thousands of users reporting issues with their internet speeds and a lack of signal. But the network has since apologised and confirmed that "services are now recovering".
The issues, which also affected related networks like Smarty, were first reported on Downdetector (below) at around 10.20am on February 12 and grew rapidly. At their peak, more than 12,000 customers reported an outage on the network. But this has since dropped markedly to only a few hundred at the time of writing.
Three UK has stated on X (formerly Twitter) that "services are now recovering", but that "a number of our customers are still waiting for their service to be restored". It added that its "engineers are working to fully fix it".
Following an issue with our network that started earlier, services are now recovering. We know a number of our customers are still waiting on their service to be restored, and our engineers are working to fully fix it (1/2)February 12, 2024
A few hours earlier, Three UK had admitted there was a major outage that was affecting not just the network but its customer services. On X (formerly Twitter) it stated that "some customers may be experiencing issues with our network this morning" and that "our engineers are working hard to fix it".
Interestingly, Three stated that the issues were also hitting their customer services, which is why it recommended checking its X account for further updates. We contacted Three for a longer explanation of what had caused today's issues, but it gave us the same statement as the one below.
Some customers may be experiencing issues with our network this morning. Our engineers are working hard to fix it.This issue is also impacting customer service, so please check back here for the latest updates (1/2)February 12, 2024
The issues follow a weekend of patchy performance on Three, with the network saying in a follow-up post on X that "we're very sorry for the issues with service over the past few days and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused".
Three UK has a Network status checker if you're affected and want to find out if your area is still experiencing issues. If the outage has caused you significant problems, you can use Three's official complaint form to see if you're entitled to a refund.
This outage follows another big one affecting Three customers in early December 2023, which saw more than 20,000 people reporting issues. As we reported at the time, the problems highlighted the seemingly growing need to have a backup broadband solution at home.
Three is still in the process of merging with Vodafone in a £15bn deal that's expected to be completed by the end of this year. But right now, customers will be focused more on getting their mobile signal or broadband back up and running – we'll update this page as soon as we have more information.
