Three Mobile Data Outage Affects Users Around The UK

Three customers around the UK have been unable to access mobile data services since this morning due to an unspecified fault.

The operator says the problem is intermittent and that its engineers are working to fix the fault, with coverage slowly returning to affected users.

“Some of our customers are experiencing data issues,” said Three. “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and working quickly to resolve the problem.”

Three mobile data services

Users have reported problems in locations ranging from London and Brighton to Manchester and Telford, while others say they have not been affected. Some have reported that mobile data had been restored, but that their connection was much slower than usual. One user on Twitter joked that they were surprised to learn that Three’s 4G rollout had been cancelled in favour of a ‘0G’ service.

At the time of writing, TechWeekEurope was able to access Three’s mobile Internet service in London.

The operator is currently in the process of upgrading its network to 4G as part of its ultrafast plans, with Birmingham, London, Manchester and Reading the first to benefit

Three plans to cover 50 locations with 4G by the end of 2014, but has constantly claimed that customers would notice little difference in the short-term because of the speeds offered by its DC-HSPDA+-powered 3G network.

It has marketed this as ‘3.9G’, but was told by the Advertising Standards Agency to stop using the term in its materials, following a complaint from EE, which said Three was implying its non-LTE service was very close to 4G.

Who are Britain’s mobile operators? Try our quiz!