Several major phone networks are down amid coronavirus outbreak - here’s why

Several major mobile phone networks are struggling to cope as millions of people across the UK work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Customers from EE, Vodafone, Three, O2, Virgin and GiffGaff are reporting problems making and receiving calls and texts, as well as difficulties getting online.

Why are mobile networks down?

The communication outage comes as millions of Brits work from home, following the latest government advice amid the coronavirus crisis.

While the exact cause of the problem is not yet known, there is speculation that the volume of people working from home could be to blame for struggling phone networks.

According to the website DownDetector, which tracks the number of tech problems major networks encounter, the issue first started at around 9am this morning, with a peak number of complaints at around 11am.

‘Big spikes in data usage’

Last week, Vodafone announced the measures it had taken to help its customers during the Covid-19 outbreak on its website.

Nick Jeffrey, the company’s CEO, said: “We know we can cope well with big spikes in data usage.

“We’ve added extra capacity to the core fixed, broadband and mobile networks to cope with the extra demand as more people work from home.

“This minimises congestion at particularly busy aggregation points.”

‘Drastic action’

Yesterday the Prime Minister set out the need for "drastic action" to tackle the "fast growth" of coronavirus across the UK as increased social distancing measures are introduced for the population.