Vodafone UK has confirmed it is experiencing issues with its mobile network following reports from thousands of customers online Wednesday morning claiming they have no signal, leaving them without access to calls, texts, and mobile data.
“We are aware some customers are experiencing intermittent issues using our network,” a Vodafone spokesperson told Express.co.uk. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience, our team is working hard to fix the issue and we hope to have it resolved quickly.”
Popular website Downdectector, where people can report issues with various services, saw a huge spike in reports of problems with the Vodafone UK network from about 7am on Wednesday morning.
“How can the entire Vodafone network be down but their website still says no issues”, said X user @_michellebeck, with other frustrated customers saying Vodafone’s service status page was not reporting any problems.
“@VodafoneUK 5 phones on your network at home doesn’t work at all. Connected to signal but no data service or calls available on 3G/4G/5G. Checked the network status and it says all is fine. You have a problem going on, with multiple reports. Please help.”, @pierreguyc tweeted.
Those contacting Vodafone over social media were presumably having to use their home or work Wi-Fi networks in lieu of any mobile service.
“Is Vodafone down for anyone? Not receiving any texts or calls”, tweeted @victoriacarlin_, while a fellow X user said only 3G service was working, not the faster 4G and 5G network speeds.
The report problems come the month Vodafone is actively swtiching off its 3G network for good. The 20 year old 3G connection is being completely shuttered by the end of January, as UK mobile networks retire the old service in favour of the newer 4G and 5G standards.
“I think both Vodafone and Voxi networks are down this morning”, said @MzMary_Cathryn. Voxi is a subsidiary of Vodafone that offers SIM-free plans and uses the Vodafone network.
As of 10am on Wednesday, Vodafone had not released an official statement on the reported outages. Its official X account was replying to customers acknowledging some “issues”, but customers remained annoyed.
“They haven’t announced nothing.. not an explanation or an apology”, fumed @zee_yilmaz.
Others posted screenshots from their phones with a completely empty signal bar symbol.
Widespread mobile network outages are relatively rare in the UK but any issues tend to be noticed very quickly given the proliferation of smartphones.
