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Vodafone customers across the United Kingdom are reporting widespread service disruptions.
Downdetector, a service monitoring online outages, indicated that over 130,000 reports were submitted on Monday afternoon, citing issues with Vodafone’s broadband and mobile network services.
The company’s website states it serves over 18 million customers in the UK, including approximately 700,000 home broadband subscribers.
In a statement released Monday evening, Vodafone issued an apology to its customer base, confirming that its network was “recovering.”
A Vodafone spokesperson acknowledged, “This afternoon, the Vodafone network experienced an issue impacting broadband, 4G, and 5G services.”
The spokesperson added, “2G voice calls and SMS messaging remained operational, and the network is currently recovering.
“We extend our apologies for any inconvenience caused to our customers.”
The outage follows reports on social media of difficulties reaching Vodafone customer service representatives, amidst ongoing disruptions to mobile data and broadband connectivity.
Numerous users also reported challenges accessing the company’s website and mobile application, platforms typically used to monitor network service status.
Frustrated customers have taken to social media to report “complete outages” in their respective geographic areas.
Reports indicate that service interruptions began shortly after 15:00 BST.
Internet monitoring firm Netblocks stated via X that live network data analysis revealed Vodafone was experiencing “a national outage” affecting both broadband and mobile data services.
Some customers have expressed heightened frustration stemming from the inability to access either Wi-Fi or mobile data services.
“Sort it out soon please,” one X user wrote, explaining their reliance on a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi network to access online services due to the failure of their mobile data and broadband connections.
Another user stated the outage prevented them from working, stating: “Never regretted more having my mobile and broadband on the same network.”
Reports also indicate the outage has impacted operations at some Vodafone retail locations.
The disruptions to Vodafone’s services have cascaded to customers of other telecommunications providers that rely on its network infrastructure.
Downdetector registered a comparable surge in reports from users of Voxi, a mobile network operated by Vodafone.
Lebara, which utilizes Vodafone’s network infrastructure, has also experienced impacts from the company’s outage.
“Outages have been reported across multiple networks across broadband and mobile services,” noted Sabrina Hoque, telecoms expert at Uswitch.
She further added that such disruptions can be “a really frustrating experience for customers, especially when it’s not clear how long it could last.”
Vodafone has yet to provide an estimated timeframe for full service restoration, although its website appears to have returned online.
Cloudflare Radar, a service that tracks and displays patterns in global internet traffic, reported on Bluesky that Vodafone had “effectively dropped off the internet, with traffic dropping to zero.”
The company has not yet disclosed the root cause of the network disruptions.
“Incidents like this are often caused by a technical fault or configuration error rather than a major cyber-attack, so until more details are confirmed it’s best not to speculate,” said Daniel Card, a cyber expert with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
“Having teams capable of diagnosing and responding rapidly to network failures is key to maintaining public trust and keeping the UK’s digital infrastructure running smoothly.”
Additional reporting by Ewan Somerville.
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