Vodafone outage live updates: Phone and home internet users unable to get online in widespread disruption

Vodafone appears to be coming back online – at least for some, in some places. The number of reports on tracking website Down Detector is also falling, suggesting that fewer people are running into problems.

This comment from a security expert makes clear that the outage was probably not a cyber attack – but it is big nonetheless.

Daniel Card, a cyber expert with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said: “Incidents like this are often caused by a technical fault or configuration error rather than a major cyber-attack, so until more details are confirmed it’s best not to speculate. What we can see is that Vodafone UK’s network traffic has effectively dropped to zero, suggesting a significant connectivity issue. It’s not yet clear whether their DNS or routing systems are accessible outside Vodafone’s own network, and even their online status page is currently offline.

“That said, events like this underline just how critical strong digital resilience and cyber skills are, not only for telecoms providers but across every sector. Having teams capable of diagnosing and responding rapidly to network failures is key to maintaining public trust and keeping the UK’s digital infrastructure running smoothly.”

Reports of problems started around 3pm UK. It’s now roughly 5pm, and users are still reporting that their internet connections are completely down.

Vodafone is aware of the problems and working to fix them, it has said. It has also confirmed that the issues are affecting both its home broadband and mobile internet services.

"We are aware of a major issue on our network currently affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services,” a spokesperson has said. "We appreciate our customers' patience while we work to resolve this as soon as possible."

The Vodafone problems do not appear to be centred in one particular area. As can be seen in this map, from tracking website Down Detector, the hotspots are all across the UK.

Vodafone does offer a website for checking its network status. But the page appears not to be working, presumably either because of the technical problems or because they have led to a huge amount of interest.

You can find it here. (It seems to be loading, but spottily.)

.... to The Independent’s live coverage of the major outage at Vodafone.