Outage at EE wrecks voice calls across the UK

EE customers have been hit with a nationwide outage, with many unable to make calls this morning. According to monitoring site Down Detector, the problem first emerged around 8am this morning. Customers in London and the South East appear to have been hit the hardest. But folk were also reporting problems in Blackpool, …

[wolfetone]

Everything Everywhere?

Nothing Anywhere today.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

or more concisely, EE? Na. Works both ways. Genius.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

Was I the only one to not see a reference to BT in the article.

Wonder if BT were trying to migrate interconnects back to BT now they own EE.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

"Wonder if BT were trying to migrate interconnects back to BT now they own EE."

Lets hope not. EE is not so far subject to the court orders that filter various sites on other ISPs...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

I think there were problems on Saturday as well.

[shadowpawn]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

My VoIP Skype Out and Viber calls were working perfectly. Always have a backup

[Wayland]

Re: Everything Everywhere?

"Nothing Anywhere today." No that's not fair.

More like SS, Somethings Someplaces.

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop paying Kevin Bacon silly money and spend the cash on your lousy network and poor customer service.

[m0rt]

Personally I think that keeping Kevin Bacon on screen is amusing and possibly the most worthwhile thing EE do.

[Fihart]

Kevin Bacon @m0rt

An upvote earned. My irony meter went into the red zone.

[m0rt]

Re: Kevin Bacon @m0rt

Which is ironic, because I wasn't being ironic. :p

[Scott 53]

Re: Kevin Bacon @m0rt

And as the plane crashed down he thought

"Well, isn't this nice."

is the only quotable example in that song.

[m0rt]

@scott53 Re: Kevin Bacon @m0rt

"And as the plane crashed down he thought

"Well, isn't this nice."

is the only quotable example in that song."

Isn't it ironic that a song about things being ironic only has a single ironic statement in it?

Yo dawg...this statement is ironically about the lack of irony in your 'irony'.

[Wayland]

Kevin Bacon

is probably the worst thing about EE.

[Anonymous Coward]

EE delivered an unsolicited text that was an obvious fraud spam at 01:30 the other night. It claimed I had nearly three thousand pounds due to me "for your accident" - and gave a ".mobi" domain site link.

Google found an EE customer forum question/answer that revealed there is a SPAM reporting number 7726. Couldn't find anything official on that subject on the EE web site.

Forwarded the text to 7726. Almost instantaneous reply saying they needed the number from which it had been sent. I replied with a single line of the number starting +44. Then received another reply from EE saying "Sorry, couldn't retrieve the content" - whatever that means.

If they are serious about blocking such unsolicited texts then they should have a clear faq somewhere saying the format they need for the notification. I wouldn't be surprised if my PAYG account was charged for those text messages I sent to 7726.

[JimboSmith]

I feel your pain as I too have received a fraud spam text (at exactly 3am) that allegedly came from a short code number. I forwarded the message to 7726 and was asked for the number. When I provided that they said as it was a short code I just needed to opt out. I didn't sign up to receive messages from that number or indeed any other number. As such the last thing I'm going to do is respond to a text from it. I did add it to my block list immediately though.

[Dave 126]

EE once delivered to me a Spam SMS that spoofed a real Barclays Bank number (I'd changed bank some months before, so immediately smelt a rat. For fucks sake. How hard is it to compare SMSs to a list of legit numbers from banks, gov agencies and utility companies?

This morning, during the call outage, EE successfully sent me a "you have used 80% of your data allowance" yet were unable to send me an SMS informing me of the voice call outage.

Since I'm on a rolling monthly SIM-only tariff, I think I'll ring them up tomorrow and threaten to ditch then lest they bump up my data allowance. I've said it before - buy your handset outright, never through a carrier. An additional bonus is that you're covered by the Sales of Goods Act, and don't have to put up with sending your phone off to be repaired should it develop a fault - just demand a refund.

[techmind]

Obviously spoofed SMS

Yeah, I received one on Orange, claiming to be from WhatsApp - the old "you need to pay a 99p subscription scam". Apparently this scam was rife in June. But you'd've thought it'd be possible to generically block 'em.

[Anonymous Coward]

"EE once delivered to me a Spam SMS that spoofed a real Barclays Bank number [...]"

Had one like that - saying that my payment had been rejected and to phone the enclosed "Barclays" number to sort it out. Took me ages to contact the Barclays fraud department from their web site information.

They checked it out and decided it must have been someone doing a smart phone payment who had previously entered the wrong (viz my) number in their online account details. As I had never given Barclays my mobile number - they could see there was no way I could have attempted a phone transaction. They couldn't locate the other person's account using a trawl for my mobile number. They decided the person had corrected their mistake when they didn't get the reply for their payment.

I was surprised they couldn't locate a log of the failed transaction.

They gave me a direct line number to the fraud department in case anything amiss did happen.

[coolcity]

Erm, I don't know which Sale of Goods Act you're reading but after the first 30 days you're not entitled to a refund by default, the retailer only had to repair or replace it. They also have 30 days at least to do so. You're only entitled to a refund it they fail to do that. You will also still have to return the item, at your expense (unless agreed otherwise in the T&Cs). That's why the carriers are able to get you to return for repair. Not sure why you would think the Sale of Goods Act doesn't cover contract sales just like any other sale.

Incidentally the Sale of Goods Act was actually scrapped a couple of years ago and replaced with the (similar) Consumer Rights Act, but please try to get your facts right before posting such things as you're misleading other people.

[Chris Evans]

"How hard is it to compare SMSs to a list of legit numbers from banks, gov agencies and utility companies?"

Comparing would be easy, it is keeping up to date the list of legit numbers that is the problem. I doubt any company/organisation is going to volunteer to do it.

[TheVogon]

"When I provided that they said as it was a short code I just needed to opt out. I didn't sign up to receive messages from that number or indeed any other number. As such the last thing I'm going to do is respond to a text from it. I did add it to my block list immediately though."

I had this happen to me for some chargeable fitness service. I never signed up but the registration was valid. You need to cancel it. You can do it by contacting the provider if you don't want to reply to the text. Otherwise you likely will be charged and it can be a PITA to get a refund. And if you blocked the number you wont see the likely now chargeable messages!

When I contacted the provider they were adamant I had visited a web page and confirmed a service, which I know I did not and no one else has access to my device. I believe the underlying cause was Malware in the Google Play Store called "ExpensiveWall" - likely on a wallpaper app I downloaded. Android is such an insecure pile of poo...

If this is likely what happened to you then please report it to https://psauthority.org.uk/for-consumers/making-an-enquiry as well as the vendor.

The vendor absolutely refused to acknowledge any possibility that someone had not signed up to the service...

[coolcity]

That's shocking advice from EE. Actually replying to the text is part of the scam - the reply could cost you £10 or more to send.

Personally I blame Ofcom, this premium rate call/text stuff is mostly used by scammers anyway and should have been stopped years ago.

[Joe 37]

Not Ofcom that is responsible for the sewer that is premium rate fraud. At least so they keep on saying while passing the buck to Phonepayplus or whatever they call themselves now.

A "Regulator" that allows the frauds to go on so they can get bigger fines out of them. Which funds them. The regulator is a fraudster itself.

[TheVogon]

"Actually replying to the text is part of the scam - the reply could cost you £10 or more to send."

Not if it's to cancel by sending STOP or STOP ALL. That's never chargeable over a basic text message fee.

[adam payne]

I feel your pain as well I get loads of txts I didn't sign up for. I'm certainly not replying to them to confirm my number.

One positive note I haven't been charged for txts to 7726.

http://ee.co.uk/help/safety-and-security/security/blocking-unwanted-calls

[Anonymous Coward]

EE/Orange not accepting the number for spam reports

They've had that bug for 6 or 7 years (at least) now.

Insisting on the number (as if they couldn't cross-correlate it anyway), and then rejecting it.

They'll *never* fix it.

[TheVogon]

Re: EE/Orange not accepting the number for spam reports

"They've had that bug for 6 or 7 years (at least) now.

Insisting on the number (as if they couldn't cross-correlate it anyway), and then rejecting it."

Always works fine for me on EE. I report them and then cut and paste the number in the next text.

[john.jones.name]

Voice ?

check if Wifi calling works that way you know if its bridge failure or IMS

(turn off the mobile signal on a iphone and have only wifi)

[Rabbit80]

Re: Voice ?

Nope, WiFi calling not working either.. Been off here since around 10.30am. I wonder if we can claim compensation?

[Richard 81]

Re: Voice ?

Hah, compensation!

...oh, you were being serious?

[1an3]

Re: Voice ?

WifiCalling affected in the same way here - insofar as I can receive calls, but not make.

[Dave 126]

Re: Voice ?

Calls from one EE mobile phone to another worked, but not from EE mobile to a landline... This suggests that calls had trouble leaving EE, regardless if the call entered through WiFi or cellular.

[Anonymous Coward]

Vicky

Is that Mrs Trump or just a run-of-the-mill Oompa Loompa?

[Benny]

We are experiencing the issue with multiple phone networks, O2, EE and Vodafone - can't make calls to them from landlines.

Interestingly, I just switched our outbound routes away from BT and we can make calls to them again.

[Alan J. Wylie]

BT Mobile are having problems, too.

https://twitter.com/btbusinesscare/status/917743049299677184

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: BT Mobile are having problems, too.

No surprise, they piggy back of the EE network.

[zaphy42]

BT Mobile and Plusnet also affected. Presumably all MVNO's that use EE's network.

['s water music]

The real story...

...is that there are at least four people who use twitter and claim to make voice calls.

What would Bong! say?

[Anonymous Coward]

Update 16:30

"Traffic congestion has been reduced to enable the recovery to service of affected voice platforms. A controlled reintroduction of traffic is now in progress"

[TheVogon]

Re: Update 16:30

""Traffic congestion has been reduced to enable the recovery to service of affected voice platforms. A controlled reintroduction of traffic is now in progress""

So sounds like something failed and the backup didn't work, or it didn't have sufficient capacity to cope with the load. Anyone know if it effected emergency calls? They could get a chunky fine if it did!

[Anonymous Coward]

EE will be delivering the Emergency Services Network soon

lest we forget...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/25/emergency_services_network_to_be_hit_by_delays_warn_mps/

'the committee found that the ESN “may require more testing and assurance work than the current December 2019 delivery date seems to allow for," said the PAC report.'

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: EE will be delivering the Emergency Services Network soon

Have faith- this is probably EE just throttling back on their customers voice calls in readiness for a major emergency so that they can give priority to the Emergency Services and all the other responders when they take over the Emergency Services Network next year, or is it 2019 or 2020? Anyway, they must know what they are doing and EE customers have to appreciate that the ESN provider is going to have to prioritise services every now and then .....

[Allan 1]

Doesn't appear limited to EE. Been unable to make or recieve voice calls all day, and I'm with TescoMobile who is an O2 based VMNO

[AstroNutter]

Not just voice calls

My phone completely lost service. It’s been down since 10:30, and still not back after midnight. Not just voice calls, but completely blocked off the network!

Yes there’s been compensation for the lack of service.

[Anonymous Coward]

Update just received

"The issue affecting calls yesterday was resolved by our engineering team last night at 6pm. Data, messaging and emergency calls were unaffected. We apologise for the inconvenience this caused. If you are still experiencing issues and have restarted your device, please call 150."

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what happens when the spooks splice into the fibre backbones

How else are they supposed to monitor every citizens call....

#ThinkOfTheChildren

[Alan Edwards]

Picocells out too?

This probably explains why my EE Signal Box picocell was dead most of yesterday. It had a red light so I bounced it, and it was flashing green light the rest of the day. Finally came back about 10pm when I restarted it again.