Three mobile network down: Users unable to make or receive calls amid outage

Thousands of people are unable to make calls amid a major outage affecting mobile network provider Three.

“We are aware of an issue affecting voice services and are working hard to fix it,” a notice from the company said.

“Data services are working normally. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”

No timeline for when the company expected the issue to be fixed has been given.

Problems began being reported early on Wednesday morning with the number of reports peaking at almost 10,000 at around 9.30am.

Users continue to face issues as of 2pm.

On the monitoring website DownDetector, customers complained about being unable to make or receive calls.

“I’m working up on a wind farm in the Scottish Highlands and can’t make or receive phone calls,” one user wrote.

“It’s a joke. Never had this problem when I had the 3G network.”

Another said: “This is a reminder on how reliant we are on our mobile phones network. I have not been able to talk to my school about my child’s absence today.”

Others have complained about missing telephone appointments with doctors.

Earlier this month, Vodafone announced it had completed its merger with Three UK. The combined business, named VodafoneThree, is 51% owned by Vodafone.

Around 27 million mobile phone customers have been promised better coverage “at no extra cost” within months as a result of the merger, the firm said.