Many Vodafone users are facing internet connectivity issues, with tens of thousands reporting problems.
The outages started on Monday afternoon, as indicated by DownDetector, a monitoring website that logged over 130,000 complaints related to Vodafone connections.
A Vodafone spokesperson acknowledged the situation, stating, «We are currently experiencing a significant network problem that is affecting broadband, 4G, and 5G services.
«We appreciate our customers’ patience as we strive to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.»
The company serves more than 18 million customers in the UK, with nearly 700,000 utilizing Vodafone’s home broadband service.
Frustrated Vodafone users took to social media to express their discontent.
One user expressed, «It feels like Vodafone has disappeared off the face of the earth. Nothing seems to be working.»
Furthermore, the Vodafone app seemed to be inaccessible to users, with the company’s website experiencing temporary outages as well.
The website’s ‘network status checker’ was also unavailable, and attempts by Sky News to contact the customer helpline were unsuccessful.
«Vodafone seems to be completely down, almost as if it has vanished from existence,» remarked another user.
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Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, highlighted how dependent we are on modern infrastructure like mobile networks during such outages.
«Outages naturally spark initial concerns of a potential cyber incident, although current evidence suggests an internal network failure rather than a confirmed attack,» Mr. Moore explained.
«The sudden outage, coupled with the inability to reach customer service, mirrors typical signs of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, where attackers overwhelm the network causing system failures.»
«Whether intentional or not, this situation once again underscores our heavy reliance on digital infrastructure, particularly in an era where mobile networks are crucial for various operations,» he added.
«Ultimately, resilience is vital, regardless of whether the cause is a direct cyberattack, a supply chain disruption, or a critical internal error.»