'Non-malicious' - Vodafone customers across Sussex and Surrey left without internet access after 'software issue'
Thousands of Vodafone users across Sussex and Surrey were left without internet access due to a ‘non-malicious software issue’, the company has revealed.
Vodafone UK was down for hours on Monday afternoon (October 13).
User reports ‘indicated problems’ at Vodafone, according to downdetector.co.uk
The volume of user reports surged around 2.40pm BST, with almost 140,000 people affected.
Of those experiencing issues, 67 per cent had a problem with their home internet connection, 24 per cent had an issue with their mobile data and eight per cent were also reporting no signal.
Vodafone’s website was also out of action.
A Vodafone spokesperson told Sussex World on Monday evening: “This afternoon, for a short time, the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services. 2G voice calls and SMS messaging were unaffected and the network is now recovering. We apologise for any inconvenience this caused our customers.”
The company provided an updated statement on Tuesday morning.
This read: “On Monday afternoon, for a short time, the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services.
"This was triggered by a non-malicious software issue with one of our vendor partners which has now been resolved, and the network has fully recovered. We apologise for any inconvenience this caused our customers.”
The firm earlier told our parent title, NationalWorld, that it was ‘aware of a major issue on our network’ currently. It added: “We appreciate our customers' patience while we work to resolve this as soon as possible.”
Here are some of the posts on X (formerly Twitter), whilst those affected waited for an update on when internet would be restored...
@danisavanagh: “Working from home is all fun and games until a nationwide outage hits.”
@FPLDave10: “Should have checked Twitter before resetting my router two times & both failed.. Vodafone hurry!
"Have you tried turning it off and on again @VodafoneUK.”
@RyanPar1999: “Final Update. It has now been 10 minutes since Vodafone has been down. I feel like a new man. Can't remember life with Wi-Fi. Ready for survival in the wild. Or might buy a Samsung.”
@YesImJack: “Who just unplugged something in the Vodafone data centre?”
@iwearflipflaps: “My Vodafone broadband has gone down but even my mobile data isn’t working, anyone else?”