Mobile phone company Three has apologized after more than 10,000 customers suffered service outages in recent days.
The company, which has more than 10 million customers in the UK, apologized in posts on Saturday, Sunday and Monday for a series of issues affecting voice calls and mobile data usage.
“We have been experiencing issues with our service over the past few days, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
The three said in a post on Monday.
“We know many customers are still waiting for service to be restored, and our engineers are working on a complete fix.”
More than 12,000 people reported experiencing some sort of disruption to their phone service, according to outage tracker Downdetector.
A spokesperson for Three UK said the issue affecting customers over the weekend was separate from the issue revealed on Monday, but would ultimately result in similar network outages for mobile phone users.
“Service is currently being restored after a previous network issue,” X said in an update.
Service is currently being restored after a previous network issue.
We understand that many customers are still waiting for service to be restored and our engineers are working on a complete fix (1/2)— Three UK (@ThreeUK) February 12, 2024
Last month, UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three to create the UK’s biggest mobile phone operator.
The companies said the agreement would result in an additional £11 billion of investment in the UK.
In 2016, the CMA and the European Commission blocked Three’s attempt to take over O2 due to the risk of price gouging.
However, UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom changed its long-held stance in 2022, saying it was now more open to consolidation in the sector. Ofcom has previously argued that reducing the number of networks to three could harm British consumers.
In a separate move, the government is also investigating Vodafone shares held by a UAE-backed telecoms group.
The Cabinet Office has warned that the 14.6% stake held by Emirates Telecom Group, also known as e&, represents a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in UK telecoms services.
The government has now ordered Vodafone to set up a ‘National Security Committee’, which will oversee and monitor the telecom company’s sensitive operations that may affect national security. ing.
Vodafone UK has a number of government contracts and Three UK is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, so it is a major national asset, especially given the city’s status as part of China. Concerns may arise about foreign co-ownership.
Vodafone UK has public sector contracts with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice, NHS 111 and local police forces.
Source: www.theguardian.com
