Vodafone is down across the UK, cutting off thousands from broadband and mobile signal. Some parts of Vodafone's own website also appear offline, leaving customers unable to contact customer support services.
Over 135,000 disgruntled customers have flooded social media to voice complaints about a nationwide outage with the popular broadband supplier, according to figures from Down Detector UK.
For those who don't know, Down Detector is an independent website that monitors the performance and health of online services, based on social media activity. With a surge in activity across X, formerly Twitter, and other platforms, it's highly likely Vodafone is experiencing an outage in the UK this afternoon (October 13).
Thousands of Vodafone customers have experienced an (as yet) unexplained outage with broadband services across the UK
|DOWN DETECTOR UK
Vodafone has not publicly commented on the growing number of reports around its broadband.
However, the telecom issued a statement back in July that it was no longer able to assist customers on X, posting: "Due to a technical change on X our customer care team are currently unable to respond to messages on the platform. If you need to speak to our care team, please send us a message on Facebook or Instagram."
At the time of writing, there's no confirmation of the Vodafone outage on Facebook.
According to customers, Vodafone broadband is comprehensively down in the UK — leaving users unable to connect to the internet, despite having a strong signal from their Wi-Fi network. Some customers have also complained about issues with their mobile signal too, leaving them unable to ring the Vodafone customer helpline to attempt to fix the problem.
The online tool built into Vodafone's website that allows customers to check if the connectivity problems they're experiencing are unique to them or part of a nationwide trend is also offline at the moment
|VODAFONE | GB NEWS
Vodafone offers an online status checker, which flags outages, disruptions, or planned engineering works that could impact your broadband connection or 5G mobile signal, saving you a call to its helpline. At the time of writing, this webpage is currently offline.
Some Vodafone customers have complained about other sections of Vodafone's website being offline too, leaving them unable to use chat services to message customer services.
What about compensation? For fixed-line broadband or landline connections, UK regulator Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme applies: if a total loss of service isn’t fixed within two full working days customers on participating providers (including Vodafone) are entitled to £9.76 per calendar day until it’s fixed; missed appointments and delayed starts have set payments too.
Mobile outages aren’t covered by this automatic fixed-line scheme, so mobile customers must seek redress directly with their provider.
The newly-launched Vodafone Ultra Hub 7 is built from 95% recycled plastic, earning it the Green Product Mark Certification for electrical products, and comes equipped with the latest Wi-Fi 7 wireless technology for faster downloads
| VODAFONE PRESS OFFICESpeaking to GB News, Sabrina Hoque, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, commented on the major outage: "Outages are a really frustrating experience for customers, especially when it’s not clear how long it could last.
"For those affected, the quickest way to check if the internet is down in your area is by searching for your provider on a site like Down Detector. You can report an issue with your network and check if other people using your provider’s network are also having issues.
“If your broadband connection goes down for more than two days, you could be entitled to compensation of £9.76 for each calendar day that the service is not repaired.
“Ofcom advises that compensation for mobile signal outages is ‘dependent on the circumstances.’ But in extreme cases where repairs take much longer, you may be entitled to an additional refund or account credit. If you’re experiencing regular issues, don’t hesitate to contact your provider to see if they can help.”"
Vodafone is one of the UK’s biggest telecom brands — a mobile operator and fixed-line broadband provider whose brand was first unveiled in March 1984 and made history by rolling out the first cellular service in the UK the following year. Today, Vodafone says it serves around 18–19 million customers in the UK, with roughly hundreds of thousands of home broadband customers.
When it comes to home broadband, Vodafone is seen as a mid-tier player, placing it behind household brands such as BT (the largest of all broadband providers today), Sky, and Plusnet on broadband market share. It has invested heavily in next-generation full-fibre connections, offering some of the fastest connections available in the UK. It's also beaten rivals like Sky, Plusnet, and TalkTalk to market with a next-generation Wi-Fi 7 router to take advantage of those faster fibre speeds.
Vodafone recently completed its £15bn mega-merger with Three UK to form VodafoneThree.
The combined company will keep multiple consumer brands — including the likes of Vodafone, Three, VOXI, SMARTY, and Talkmobile, invest heavily in 5G networks across the UK for improved mobile connectivity for users, and push to grow its fixed-broadband footprint — promising faster rollout and “shared-network” benefits for millions of customers.
More to follow. Please refresh this webpage for the most up-to-date information
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