Three customers have been unable to use their mobile phones since Wednesday night, after a network meltdown left them without a signal or access to data.
Three which has about 10 million customers in the UK, said the network was starting to return by lunchtime on Thursday, and advised users to switch their phones on and off again to restore service.
The problems started on Wednesday night at around 11.30pm BST after repairs to Three’s 3G network infrastructure.
A Three spokesperson said: “Following technical difficulties with our services across voice, text and data, some customers will be experiencing an intermittent service. Our engineers are working to fix the issue and the service is returning to normal, and we expect it to be resolved over the course of the day.
“We advise our customers to turn their phones off and on or turn airplane mode on and off, which may resolve the issue. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers.”
Downdetector, a website that tracks outages across various networks, said it had received reports of problems from Three users in Manchester, London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Bradford and Sheffield.
The Three website also went down for a number of hours, and later carried the message: “ We’re aware of network issues and are working hard to fix them. We know the impact this is having on your day, and we’re sorry. Rest assured, we’ve got our best minds on the job.”
Many Three mobile users complained they had been unable to make calls or go online for hours and that there had been no communication from the company.
