Thousands of people across the UK faced major phone service disruptions on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Vodafone, EE, and BT customers reported that they could not make or receive calls for several hours. The issue peaked around 2:00 pm BST, with outage tracking sites showing a sharp spike in complaints.
Many users noticed problems beginning shortly after 11:00 am. Reports came from cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow. Both mobile and landline connections were affected. Users quickly shared their frustration on social media. So many are saying any call attempt resulted in silence or error tones. For some, internet data still worked, but calling did not.
A spokesperson for Vodafone apologized to customers, saying, “Due to some technical issues, some customers will be experiencing issues making or receiving calls. We know how important it is for you to have this working, and we’re working hard to fix this as soon as possible.” Vodafone said its technical team was urgently investigating and trying to resolve these issues.
EE and its parent company, BT, also confirmed issues. BT described it as a “problem impacting our services” and apologized for the inconvenience. The company said its engineers were working quickly to fix the network and would provide updates as soon as possible. EE’s customer service confirmed they were investigating disruptions causing customers to lose connection or have problems with calls.
Outage reports showed the worst-hit locations included major cities and high-traffic areas. Networked like three, and O2 said its system was running normally. The only difficulty for O2 users was calling friends or family who were customers of the other affected networks.
The root cause of the outage was not immediately clear. Vodafone and EE did not share specific details. Experts note that outages hitting more than one network are unusual. Sometimes they can be caused by shared network infrastructure or routing issues, especially where overlap or virtual network operators use the same backbone.
As the outage continued, customers expressed concerns over missed calls, especially from work or family. Some tried troubleshooting by turning phones off and on, changing SIM cards, or using different devices, but nothing resolved the problem. Many said they wished networks communicated faster, as the company website had no clear alerts about the outage.
By late afternoon, some users reported services returning to normal, but others faced continued issues. Both Vodafone and EE said work was ongoing until all connections were fully restored. The companies apologized again and promised more updates.
Such widespread network problems highlight how much people rely on mobile and phone services every day. Many called for clearer communication from service providers and quicker updates during future disruptions.
