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Tens of thousands of Three UK mobile customers have suffered from a network outage on Friday
Three has over 10 million customers in the UK, tens of thousands of which were left unable to make calls or use their mobile data on Friday afternoon.
“A number of customers may be experiencing issues with our network. We are aware of what the issue is and our engineers are working to fix it as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” said Three UK on X (formerly Twitter).
According to Down Detector, an internet service outage website, the number of complaints reached 18,000 by 4pm on Friday.
There is no word from Three on the cause of the issue, although the company said via X on Saturday morning that network services had been fully restored.
Three is currently in the process of merging with rival operator Vodafone. The £15 billion deal would see Vodafone take a 51% stake in the new business and Three take the remaining minority stake of 49%.
Rather ironically, Sarah Cardell, the Chief Executive of the Completion and Markets Authority (CMA) noted that “millions of consumers and businesses in the UK rely on Vodafone’s and Three’s mobile networks to stay connected” in a statement released by the CMA when asking for third party opinions on the impact the merger will have on competition in the UK back in October.
The deadline to submit comments for the investigation was the 1st of November, following which the CMA is set to begin a formal Phase 1 investigation into the deal. This process is likely to take months, with the CMA noting that a more in-depth, Phase 2 investigation could be required if results from Phase 1 are unsatisfactory.
But in contrast to the ongoing probes in the UK, the potential merger has already survived European scrutiny. In October, the two firms officially submitted their request for approval from the European Commission on 30th October, and consequently were given the green light after the commission decided the merger would not pose any competition concerns to EU antitrust regulators.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2024, providing there are no significant issues.
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