The outage has affected broadband, 4G and 5G mobile services across the UK, with customers in major cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow reporting loss of connectivity from mid-afternoon.
The issue comes just months after Vodafone and Three completed their long-anticipated merger, creating the UK’s largest mobile network and promising a “new era of connectivity”. Instead, the operator’s debut as a unified brand has been overshadowed by one of the most significant service interruptions of the year.
According to VodafoneThree, 2G voice calls and SMS remained functional, while broadband and high-speed mobile data services were intermittently unavailable. Reports on Downdetector peaked at over 130,000 complaints, before gradually declining as the network began to recover.
A company spokesperson said: “This afternoon the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services. 2G voice calls and SMS messaging were unaffected and the network is now recovering. We apologise for any inconvenience this caused our customers.”
Andy Aitken, co-founder and CEO of Honest Mobile, the UK’s first B-Corp and carbon-negative mobile network, said the incident highlights the fragility of national connectivity even under major operators.
“VodafoneThree, the UK’s largest mobile network, is down — and it’s a stark reminder of how hit-and-miss coverage remains across the country. This merger was meant to mark a new era of connectivity, yet their own website won’t work. Outages like this prove people can no longer rely on a single network. If you want to stay connected, you need access to more than one provider. It’s time for the big networks to accept that sharing masts is the way forward.”
The cause of the outage has not yet been confirmed. Analysts say the scale of the disruption raises questions about resilience, redundancy and interoperability within the newly merged operator’s network infrastructure — particularly as the UK transitions toward nationwide 5G and fibre integration.
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