BT apologises for UK-wide weekend broadband outage

BT

BT has apologised to its broadband customers after services went down throughout the UK over the weekend.

Parts of Cornwall, Eastbourne, Preston, Tunbridge Wells and several other areas were first affected in the outage, with others in main business hubs - including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow - also reporting problems.

The outage stopped users accessing certain websites, including BT's own customer services hub, meaning customers couldn't contact the company to tell them about the issues they were experiencing. An automated message on BT's customer services phone line directed users to its BT Help pages, which caused more frustration for users.

Other websites affected included Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Amazon and banking websites such as HSBC.

A message posted on Twitter by BT Care said: "Sorry about the issues many of you had accessing the Internet this morning. Problem is now fixed- sorry for any trouble caused."

After investigation, the company revealed: "We can confirm it was a network incident and we are investigating the cause."

BT provides broadband services to more than seven million UK subscribers, including businesses.

Last week, BT's broadband supplier BT Openreach was given repairs and installation targets in order to encourage competition in the marketplace. The company will be fined if it doesn't fix 80 per cent of broadband faults within two days or installations in 12 days.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.

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