Three, the mobile network, has reported that some 999 calls were unable to get through during a widespread outage affecting thousands of customers.
The company has confirmed that the issues with its services have been resolved, but has cautioned about potential further problems due to Storm Éowyn.
Numerous customers reached out to the BBC to relay how the network failure on Thursday had impacted them, with some noting their inability to make emergency calls to 999.
While the BBC cannot independently verify these claims, Three has acknowledged receiving reports of 999 call failures affecting a small number of customers, prompting an investigation.
A spokesperson from Three stated: “A normal volume of 999 calls were successfully connected yesterday, and our monitoring confirms that the service is now operating fully this morning.”
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the voice network issues yesterday.”
Over ten thousand individuals reported on outage tracker Downdetector that they could not make or receive calls on Three on Thursday.
Additionally, there were several thousand complaints from users of Smarty and ID Mobile, smaller mobile companies utilizing Three’s network.
Ofcom, since 2009, has mandated all UK mobile network operators to enable 999 calls, allowing users to make emergency calls even outside their home network coverage. When a network is inaccessible, emergency calls will switch to any available network in the vicinity.
A Three spokesperson mentioned: “BT, the operators of the 999 service, confirmed that call traffic from our network was as expected yesterday.”
“Reports of customers experiencing issues with 999 calls are minimal. We are treating these reports seriously and conducting an investigation.”
Storm Éowyn has also posed challenges for Three on Friday.
The Three spokesperson added: “Following a voice call problem yesterday, our services are now completely back to normal, except for some localized issues related to Storm Éowyn. We deeply regret any inconvenience caused to our customers.”
They mentioned that additional engineering resources have been deployed to address any disruptions from the storm impacting the UK on Friday.
In the early hours of Friday, Downdetector received over 1,300 outage reports on Three, but the numbers have since decreased. Three also noted to the BBC that a “very small number” of WiFi-connected individuals are experiencing difficulty making calls on Friday.
According to their website, Three has around 10.5 million customers across the UK, but the extent of those affected by the outage is uncertain.
Many individuals on social media expressed their frustration over the disruption caused by the outage.
One individual claimed they missed a medical appointment due to the inability to receive calls, while another stated that the issues left their daughter stranded.
Several others mentioned they were considering leaving the network entirely.
On Thursday, Ofcom, the regulator, declared they were liaising with the network to determine the scale and cause of the issue promptly.
It remains unclear if customers can seek compensation for the outage, though Ofcom suggests providers may consider offering refunds during repair periods.
This incident follows the recent approval from the UK regulator for Three to merge with former competitor Vodafone in a £16.5 billion deal.
Coincidentally, the Three outage occurred on the same day that a major outage affected the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.