Unable to make a phone call? .
Thousands of Three UK customers have been left unable to make phone calls.
The mobile carrier has acknowledged that an unknown glitch is plaguing thousands of users nationwide, leaving them unable to make calls to landlines and mobile numbers from a Three SIM card. According to the network, mobile data services should continue to work as normal, with the issues only linked to voice calls.
That means you should be able to continue browsing the internet via a 4G or 5G internet connection. You can also continue to use services like WhatsApp, Signal, or Messenger that rely on an internet connection to make voice and video calls, send text messages or voice notes.
Nonetheless, this is a serious issue. According to , anyone with a SIM card from Three UK in their handset will be unable to make calls to the emergency services. A customer service representative from Three responded to the post, starting that "we appreciate that accessing emergency calls is vital" and that the issue was "passed on to the relevant team to investigate this."
In a statement about the widespread issues , formerly Twitter, the mobile network wrote: "We're aware of an issue affecting voice services and are working hard to fix it. Data services are working normally. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused."
, an independent service that monitors websites and services for outages by tracking mentions across social media, has recorded a surge in complaints around Three UK. At the time of writing, about problems with Three were tracked every minute across the UK.
Independent monitoring site DownDetector has recorded a spike in complaints around Three UK
DOWNDETECTOR
Data tracked by DownDetector UK about the nature of the issues tallies with the explanation from the Three UK customer service team. According to DownDetector UK, of all problems are related to voice calls, of those logged by disgruntled Three UK customers were linked to signal, while just were linked to mobile data.
Mobile networks that rely on Three UK's nationwide network of masts, like and , are experiencing the same issues. Again, mobile internet connections remain online, but calls won't work.
These brands are MVNOs, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, meaning they offer pay-monthly or SIM-only deals with calls, texts, and data, but don't own the network infrastructure that enables this service.
The outage comes days after newly-merged VodafoneThree has promised better coverage to its 27 million customers “at no extra cost”. The brand pledged that boosted network coverage would roll-out soon as a result of .
VodafoneThree has now toppled EE and O2 as the biggest mobile network in the UK.
Following the merger, Vodafone and Three customers will now be able to access both networks, bolstering signal nationwide. If you're somewhere without a strong signal from Vodafone's nationwide network of masts, it's possible that Three will have better coverage. Switching between these networks will take place in the background, with no action needed.