It’s been a bad week for Vodafone customers. Not only did a huge outage hit the network’s broadband, mobile internet services, website and customer service phone lines on October 13, many are still experiencing knock-on effects.
The problems officially only lasted for a couple of hours from around 2.30pm BST, with the peak seeing over 130,000 customers report a complete blackout of their Vodafone services on Downdetector.
The scale of the outage made it one of the biggest of the year, but hundreds of people are still reporting lingering effects – with some still without their broadband several days on.
So what caused all these problems, what can we learn from it – and most importantly, can customers get compensation for the considerable hassle they’ve experienced? We’ve asked experts for their guidance below.
What caused the Vodafone outage?
Vodafone’s latest statement on its big October 13 outage dismissed suggestions that it was a cyber attack.
“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 network said.
The rumors of a cyber attack grew because the outage took out not just Vodafone’s broadband and mobile internet services, but also its website and customer service phone lines. These symptoms echoed so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, where a network is intentionally overwhelmed by an attacker.
However, as Vodafone’s statement reveals, an internal network failure was seemingly the culprit. But can those really take out multiple services in such a dramatic fashion, and shouldn’t there be safeguards in place?
Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, said it’s unusual but still possible. “Software faults like this can happen when a routine update or configuration change doesn’t behave as expected, but it is rare on this scale” he said.
“Modern telecoms networks are incredibly complex with lots of automated systems working together and, unfortunately, a small error has the potential of rippling through to temporarily affect performance – or like we saw here, knock systems offline,” he added.
From a business perspective, the Vodafone outage is another timely reminder that better protections should be in place. Daniel Card, a cyber security expert with BCS, (The Chartered Institute for IT) said: “Major ISP outages in the UK are relatively rare, but when they do happen they serve as an important reminder of how dependent we’ve become on constant connectivity”.
“It’s not just about defending against malicious cyber threats – accidents, configuration errors, and technical faults can be just as disruptive” he added. And Vodafone customers can certainly vouch for that.
Can you get compensation for the Vodafone outage?
I asked Ofcom (the UK’s media watchdog) for its official guidance for customers seeking compensation for the Vodafone outage. The news is mixed, depending on whether you’ve had problems with your broadband or mobile internet – and for how long.
“We know it’s frustrating when things go wrong. If you’re unhappy, you should complain directly to your provider,” an Ofcom spokesperson told me. “If your broadband service is not fixed after two working days, Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme means that you may get money back automatically without having to ask”.
How much money exactly? Sabrina Hoque, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, added: “If your broadband connection goes down for more than two days, you could be entitled to compensation of £9.76 for each calendar day that the service is not repaired”. There’s more information on Ofcom’s Automatic compensation guide, which shows that Vodafone is at least signed up to the scheme.
That’s at least some positive news for those who are still suffering from broadband issues from the outage that started on October 13. In theory, you should automatically get compensation if it hasn’t been fixed after two working days. However, the guidance around mobile internet is more vague. Ofcom told me that its automatic compensation scheme sadly doesn’t cover mobile.
“Ofcom advises that compensation for mobile signal outages is ‘dependent on the circumstances.’ But in extreme cases where repairs take much longer, you may be entitled to an additional refund or account credit,” Sabrina Hoque from Uswitch added.
This means that for mobile outages on Vodafone, or related networks like Lebara, you’ll have to contact the network directly, which is something many TechRadar readers say they’ve had issues with this week.
For Vodafone, there are three ways to contact the network – through its My Vodafone app (on Android or iOS), by phone (0333 304 0191, or 191 from your Vodafone mobile) using the TOBi chat on its website. Unfortunately, there’s no single email address for customer complaints, but the latter promises to take you through to an real agent if it can’t help.
This won’t be great news for many – one TechRadar reader told me their broadband has been down for four days and they’ve haven’t been able to get through on the phone, with their online account stating that Vodafone was working to fix their broadband.
Vodafone didn’t respond to my request for further guidance for those who are still experiencing issues or are looking for compensation.
Is the Vodafone outage actually over?
Vodafone talks about this week’s outage in the past tense and says the network is “fully recovered”, but the reality appears to be somewhat different.
At the time of writing, Downdetector (above) is showing reports of issues in the 130-250 range – much smaller than the outage’s peak, but way higher than a typical baseline for a network.
The site’s comments are littered with reports of continuing broadband issues, with some (but far from all) reporting some success with doing a hard reset of their router. Others say Vodafone has told them it’s still “working on” a resolution.
This has been reflected in countless emails sent to TechRadar from understandably frustrated customers. Some say their broadband is still down, but the biggest annoyance is being unable to contact Vodafone – with the phone lines cutting off after an hour of waiting, and no updates through their online accounts.
The lack of communication is poor and I’ve contacted Vodafone for an updated statement. Unfortunately, other than getting in touch with Vodafone again yourself, there’s little you can do other than trying our tips on what to do if your broadband is slow or not working.
However, if there is a network issue in your area (you can check on Vodafone’s network status checker), then it’s unfortunately it’s likely a waiting game until it get fixed.
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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)
