Virgin Media still down as technical chaos continues after thousands unable to use broadband overnight - The Sun

VIRGIN Media is still down for hundreds of households over 12 hours after an outage left thousands of customers without internet or TV during lockdown.

The telecoms firm suffered technical issues across the UK, leaving customers unable to work from home and use their broadband.

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Customers are still experiencing issues with the service this morningCredit: Downdetector.co.uk

Virgin Media, which has 3.2million customers, says that the problem wasn't caused by an increased usage or a lack of capacity.

Frustrated customers were complaining that the connectivity kept dropping out for a few minutes before returning, and then cutting out again.

At its peak, over 41,000 customers reported problems using the website DownDetector.

The outage began shortly around 5.45pm yesterday evening and the firm says that it fixed it in the "early hours of this morning".

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This morning, more than 1,100 customers are complaining that the service is still disrupted

But as of around 8am today, there are still over 1,100 households experiencing network issues, according to DownDetector.

Areas including Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle and London are having problems with Virgin Media.

Even the provider's own online service checker is still showing issues in some areas.

Millions of people around the UK are currently working at home due to the coronavirus crisis.

The telecoms firm has been tweeting some customers to apologise and says it's aware of "technical issues".

A Virgin Media spokesperson said today: "An intermittent broadband issue that started yesterday evening was fixed in the early hours of this morning.

"This was not caused by increased usage or a lack of capacity.

Top tips on how to stay connected

BELOW are some tips from Ofcom on how to stay connected during the coronavirus crisis.

1. Use your landline or wifi calls: More people are making calls on their mobile network during the day, so you may find you get a more reliable connection using your landline or by turning on "wifi calling" in your settings.
2. Move your router clear of other devices: Keep your router as far away as possible from other devices, such as cordless phones, baby monitors, TVs and monitors, as they can all affect your wifi if they’re too close to your router. Also, place your router on a table or shelf rather than on the floor, and keep it switched on.
3. Lower the demands on your connection: The more devices attached to your wifi, the lower the speed you get. Devices like tablets and smartphones often work in the background, so try switching wifi reception off on these when you’re not using them.
4. Try wired rather than wireless: For the best broadband speeds, use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer directly to your router rather than using wifi.
5. Plug your router directly into your main phone socket: Where possible, try not to use a telephone extension lead, as these can cause interference which could lower your speed.
6. Test the speed on your broadband line: You can run a speed test using Ofcom’s official mobile and broadband checker. If possible, carry out tests over a few days and at different times of day.
7. Get advice from your broadband provider: If your connection isn’t working as well as it should, you can find advice on your broadband provider’s website. If you need to contact them for help, keep in mind that because of coronavirus some companies have fewer people to help with your queries.

"We know how frustrating this was for customers and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused."

New rules rolled out in April last year would see customers automatically compensated by their broadband and landline provider for lost connections or bad service.

But regulator Ofcom paused the compensation scheme earlier this month due to the pandemic.

Frustrated customers took to Twitter to vent their fury over their lack of connectivity.

One said:"@virginmedia has your entire service and network just died? My internet has gone down and your site is unreachable. My friends on Virgin also lost internet."

Another added: "Virgin media’s gone down for the whole country by looks of it, can still get on Xbox but can’t get on any games."

A third said: "I'm currently working from home! I have no internet cannot access work systems what is going on!?."

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Virgin Media isn't alone in experiencing technical issues, as internet providers, banks and mobile firms regularly suffer from outages.

Tens of thousands of Three Mobile customers were left without phone and internet access due to an outage in October last year.

While HSBC suffered from a technical error locking out customers in September.

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2020-04-28 09:41:12Z
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