Mobile Networks Experiencing Problems

As millions of Britons settle in to work from home, mobile phone users are reporting difficulties making voice calls today, especially to numbers on different networks.

Users of all four mobile networks in the UK were reporting issues this morning in locations as diverse as Birmingham, London, Manchester and Glasgow, according to network-status monitoring website Down Detector.

Users of Tesco Mobile and giffgaff, which both use O2’s network, were also reporting problems with phone calls.

O2 confirmed that “some customers may be experiencing issues when making and receiving voice calls on our 2G, 3G and 4G networks.”

In a statement to the BBC, the network said the fault meant subscribers to O2, Vodafone and Three were unable to call customers on EE and phones with EE were unable to connect to those on other networks.

EE said the fault was “affecting all operators” and claimed it was down to an interconnector issue with O2.

O2 denied it was the origin of the outage, which it said was “cross-industry issue.”

"At a time when the country needs connectivity most, it is important we work together rather than pointing fingers before facts have been determined,” O2 said.

Three also confirmed an issue with voice calls, which it said was affecting 3% of its customers.

Vodafone acknowledged a “short-lived problem,” which it said affected 9% of voice calls on 3G. "All operators are working together on the matter," a spokesperson for the network told the BBC.

The network faults coincided with millions of Britons following government advice to work from home, in a bid to limit the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.

EE said it didn’t believe the network faults are “connected to the rise in home working.”