Nationwide Outage. Any estimated fix time

Could someone from ID Mobile describe how we might use wifi network to make calls during this outage please?

+1 as I couldn't. I'm absolutely fuming and adds another nail in the iD coffin which is a real shame. I'm now simply fed up with this continued poor service but when you think it's related to that when infact it isn't really doesn't help with the added stress this causes. Yeah I know both issues are down to 3UK but enough is enough.

Even the ‘trick’ of flight mode and just toggling the WiFi back on (with WiFi calling enabled) didn't work either.

Luckily for me that family emergency (a washer dryer overheating) meant I only had to drive like a lunatic to my daughters house about a mile away to make it safe. Thank god I've still got a working landline (but in the moment my daughter just kept trying my mobile)

As you might be able to tell I'm not a happy bunny!

The message on our iDM account gives the impression it might be seeing a high volume of traffic. Is this from external sources?

Plus I now wrongly assumed iD had their own server for the account side of things. So I now presume our account sits on one owned by 3UK…..

Duly noted it's showing on iD’s service status page. When back home and on the laptop I'll look for other topics.

Thanks Paul but knew about that ready. But it should help others.

Though I did manually reconnect to iD about 20 mins ago which did allow numbers to be called. The issue is at the time of posting I don't know if the call actually connected (I've sent a WhatsApp to ask it it rang at their end)

Then at 17:45 iD stated their engineers had found and isolated the issue and were monitoring it. But the app now shows this

And having just refreshed their status page the 17:45 message has disappeared 😕

Okay so the manual reconnection to the iDM network didn't work (even though the number rang) but I have found a workaround (might not work everywhere). I've set my phone to 3G only and I can now call out and the call connects and works.

Hey ​@Daz_S. First, apologies that the outage impacted your daughter being able to contact you.

1. Network wise. We’re waiting to hear as much as you are, our teams are in the loop with 3UK who are providing updates where they can. Services such as WhatsApp, FaceTime Audio are unaffected, so I’d encourage using them where possible!
2. App wise. We've had to switch off the app due to high traffic (I imagine No Calls → Sudden influx of customers using the app) causing stability issues.

With incidents like this, please refer to our Service Status for the latest updates.

• Service Status.

Thanks.

Ah yes ​@Daz_S, screenshot seems ambiguous as it’s difficult to know if linked to the issue with the Three UK mobile network, or is a problem for users accessing the system iD Mobile have for users to manage their iD account online, and via the app.

(I have just spent some time replying to Matt and Ande. Upon hitting send I was greeted to my now usual “Something’s gone wrong” in the red banner and I really do hope iD can find it and post it up for me. If not then please don’t assume I ignored both of you - but with this happening on a fairly frequent basis this really puts me off wanting to carry on on here - I’d hate to think I’m wasting my time)

I noticed that too ​@ashep99 and thanks for replying. It’s good to see screenshots as once these faults are resolved they remove all records of them - I know some other providers keep historic events up indefinitely (well at least the last time I looked anyway)

The following would stop the data side of things from working but gives you the possible chance of making and receiving calls - not an issue for those of us with home internet as the data would continue via WiFi.

FWIW, if you’re lucky enough to be in a non 3G area (3UK said it was off here) but you still have 3G available (so 3UK may not be being totally honest) then like me you can nudge your phone down to 3G only. I did that earlier and could call my daughter (with a MVNO using O2). My wife (whom stayed with my daughter) is also currently with iDM (though she’s now reached her limit) and even though my phone could call her number it never rang at her end.

However when she got back I also nudged her phone down to 3G only and I was able to call her fine. She can now receive calls from any network now too. So this highlights this is a 4G (maybe 5G) related issue only as calls are working on 3G.

So why didn’t this affect 3G too…..? It wasn’t a total blackout.

Unable to make calls almost for the whole day now. What’s going on?? Need some answers from ID

I agree.  I have experienced multiple issues on my contact since I got it out in November 2024.  Calls have completely dropped out, I’m constantly having to repeat myself on the phone because they lose me for a few seconds.  I’ve experienced it twice now when I am unable to make or receive calls.  iD mobile is appalling and I just don’t know if I have the strength to fight to cancel my contract without any charges (moreso that I have a phone on the contact too).  Its not fit for purpose and wish I never changed to this company.   

My son and I are both on ID mobile. Use WhatsApp Video calls to make phone calls. That works ! 

Agreed but it doesn’t help when you have incoming calls from companies, businesses, schools etc that aren’t aware of the issue.  If my child is sick at school then they can’t get hold of me.  This isn’t the first time it’s happened from iDmobile either.  Not good enough service to be honest.

As my area (Wakefield , West Yorkshire) is served by a brand mast, I can only connect to 4G/5G here, so the 3G workaround solution is not an option.  I have tried switching manually to 4G, which gives me 1 call out, but when I disconnect and retry again it doesn’t connect until I reboot/switch airplane mode on off…

I can’t help you there then ​@MichaelT 

Interesting that manually reconnecting or toggling flight mode on and off does something😯

FWIW to anyone reading this, the iD Mobile App was not working (showing the last image I posted) at 23:45, however as of 23:50 it is back up and running.

(force close the app to bypass that message if your app doesn’t auto refresh upon opening - app version 6.5.0 has a better refresh rate but manually closing it looks like it may have helped in my case)

• Service Status.

23:45 - We have received reports indicating that some customers who previously experienced issues are now able to make and receive calls. The 3UK engineering team is still actively working on and monitoring the situation, but we are seeing signs of improvement. The iD Mobile app and my.idmobile.co.uk are now accessible. Thank you for your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. Our next update will be in the morning.

The 3G signal continues to have a good signal (3 bars) whereas a 4G call was very poor at times  often showing no signal strength bars at all - no idea if that’s the normal issue I have or part of todays fun and games

(FFS had the error message again. Last attempt and where’s the ruddy exit?)

As of 05:00 https://www.three.co.uk/support/maintenance?tab=2

There is an ongoing issue affecting a small percentage of voice services and we are working hard to fix it. Data services are unaffected. 

We are aware of a number of reports that customers have not been able to connect to 999 calls. Data from the emergency services shows that normal volumes of 999 calls being placed via our network are being connected.  

We are taking these reports very seriously and are investigating this urgently and we apologise if anyone has been unable to successfully contact emergency services.   

While it is likely your call will connect correctly to 999, if you have any issues please try another network or landline. Please do not try and test 999 calls from your device as it may prevent genuine calls being answered quickly.

(my bold)

AFAIK being as 3G has been switched off calls to the emergency services use 4G calling as the primary and 2G calling (via Vodafone) as a fall back. If these reports are indeed true then this must mean those areas where others couldn’t call must have also lost 2G. I can only hope nobody faced a life or death scenario and their call couldn’t connect because if this is the case this is a by far a more serious outage than a catch up conversation.

However, my fellow customers may want to set this up just in case the 4G call side fails again

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/legal/accessibility

The following services are designed to make communication easier for our vulnerable customers with communication difficulties (such as difficulty hearing, difficulty speaking or a visual impairment), poor mental health, physical disability, a learning disability, low literacy, or anyone unable to take care of themselves.

We also understand that someone who has experienced recent bereavement, loss of income, accident or injury can be temporarily vulnerable.

but this was the main point I was trying to raise

SMS access to emergency organisations

If you need emergency assistance in the UK you can send an SMS to 999. The text will then be converted and passed to the appropriate emergency service.

Your phone will need to be registered to the service beforehand. To do this, simply text the word 'register' to 999. You should then receive a confirmation by SMS, telling you a little more about the service. For more details, visit www.emergencysms.org.uk

Please be aware that this service may not always be available. So until you get a reply to your emergency message, you should try using other ways to contact the emergency services such as dialling 18000 on a textphone, using the NGT Lite app (details below), or asking someone to dial 999 for you.

And don't forget that this service only works in the UK. So if you're abroad you'll need to try other ways of contacting the local emergency services. If you're in Europe, the number to call will be 112.

Morning ​@Daz_S,

Apologies about the errors you’ve seen using the iD Community. Like the App, I suspect the sudden volume to Community (600% above usual!) caused the platform to have a few wobbles. I’ll be raising a ticket with Gainsight to see if there’s anything that can be done to improve stability down the line.

Thanks.

Morning Matt,

Don’t suppose my reply to you and Ande ended up on the floor in the office did it? - Although it does look like when the “Something’s gone wrong” prompt occurs they don’t even get churned out the iDM fax machine. I’ve looked at several other ones and they don’t appear to ever be cleared and uploaded by you guys and gals. Its as if they go straight into the shredder.

After force closing the iDM app around 23:45 (oddly at exactly the same time your system said it was back up) and reloading by 23:50 it loaded up fine and thus far it seems to be back to its usual self.

4G/LTE calls (via the LTE forcing app) are almost back to being like they are normally here, though the signal still isn’t back up to the normal whopping 1 bar of strength in the daylight hours and up until ~2am. 2x calls today and both said they couldn’t hear me in new locations around my property😤. So the (was going to say fun and games) hassle and frustration continues.

Oh okay, https://www.three.co.uk/support/network-and-coverage/coverage?tab=2

Following an issue affecting voice calls yesterday, services have almost returned to normal overnight. Our monitoring has picked up an issue with calls connected via WiFI which we are investigating urgently. Today, we also expect to see an additional impact on our service due to Storm Éowyn in some areas. We have already deployed extra engineering resources and planning for these areas, so we can bring sites that are impacted back online as soon as it is safe to do so. A normal volume of 999 calls were connected yesterday and our monitoring confirms the service is working fully this morning.  We continue to investigate the small number of reports that we received about 999 call failures. We apologise sincerely for the inconvenience caused by the issues on our voice network. 

I can see Sky news has also ran a story about 3UK stating customers may be affected by Storm Éowyn. Three and Sky also mentioned some losing the ability to connect to 999 yesterday - though neither Three nor Sky make any reference to the ‘other’ voice related outage (the one where many of us couldn’t make or receive a call over 4G - though I was able to prove this didn’t affect calls over 3G)

Regarding 3UK continuing to investigate small numbers reporting 999 didn’t connect, maybe 3UK should be looking at the fact that for those of us in a poor 4G signal area we have to set the phones to 4G only, thus I would guess to say the loss of 4G across the UK meant those phones did not drop to 2G which in turn meant they couldn’t dial 999. Actions have consequences - so sort the 4G and this’ll stop more of us manually changing the network connection mode to 4G only. Unless things have changed post 3G switch-off my understanding is that without 4G the 2G (via Vodafone) should allow a call to the emergency services to be made. Happy to be corrected.

But if Three is now correct and it isn’t all 100% sorted, why does iDM state this:

• Service Status.

Please note:

RESOLVED - Some customers are unable to make or receive calls, or access the iD Mobile app or My Account Online. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

 

Latest Updates:

24/01

08:30 - If you’re still unable to make or receive calls, please try restarting your phone, or toggling Airplane Mode on and off.

07:00 - We’ve had confirmation that the issue is now fully resolved and calls are functioning as expected. Once again, thank you for your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you.

23/01

But mine isn’t back to its normal below par level and where is the

• WiFi not working correctly (unless this is 3UK only)
• weather related pre warning on iD?

(not picking fault, just merely pointing out conflicting information/statements and which one should we put our trust in)

I did go digging about, but nothing unfortunately! Yes, the app is back up and running as normal, we switched it back on around the time you said. There is still some degradation to voice calls, which might explain why it’s not gone back to normal, but the good news is, it’s improving! Thanks.