Ofcom comes knocking after BT, Three mobile outages cut 999 access
- Reference: 1765877410
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/16/ofcom_bt_three/
- Source link:
The UK's telecoms regulator [1]said on Monday it is examining whether the two operators failed to meet their regulatory obligations after widespread call service disruptions affected millions of users.
According to Ofcom, BT notified the watchdog of a software issue on July 24 and 25 that knocked out mobile call services on its EE network nationwide, preventing BT and EE customers from connecting calls to other networks or reaching 999.
[2]
Three separately reported a June 25 incident – [3]just weeks after it merged with network giant Vodafone – that also disrupted voice services and access to emergency lines across its network.
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Under the terms of their licences, mobile operators must take "appropriate and proportionate" steps to identify and mitigate risks to network availability and performance, and to prevent or remedy any adverse effects when things go wrong.
The regulator says its investigation will establish the facts and assess whether there are reasonable grounds to believe BT and Three breached these duties.
[6]Vodafone keels over, cutting off millions of mobile and broadband customers
[7]London left buffering as Hyperoptic backup link refuses to boot
[8]Starlink claims Chinese launch came within 200 meters of broadband satellite
[9]Slow Wi-Fi? Add houseplants to the list of suspects
A spokesperson for Three told The Register it "experienced disruption to voice services following an exceptional spike in network traffic triggered by a third-party software configuration change." Three added that it has "engaged openly with Ofcom and will continue to cooperate fully with their investigation."
BT did not immediately respond to The Register's questions.
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The investigations come amid heightened scrutiny of UK networks after a string of high-profile failures. [11]Ofcom fined BT £17.5 million in July 2024 after a failure of its 999 emergency call handling service left thousands of calls unconnected during a June 2023 outage, and [12]Three was previously slapped with a £1.9 million fine for failing to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services due to vulnerabilities in its network.
Past form suggests these probes could yet end with fines if Ofcom concludes the operators fell short, but for now, the watchdog's latest action underscores once again that even the giants of UK telecoms aren't immune from regulatory scrutiny when their networks wobble at scale. ®
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[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/telecoms-infrastructure/ofcom-investigates-bt-and-three-following-mobile-network-outages
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aUE703TX7jwD_MtPnvZkUAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/02/vodafone_three_complete_merger/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUE703TX7jwD_MtPnvZkUAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aUE703TX7jwD_MtPnvZkUAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/vodafone_outage/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/13/hyperoptic_has_a_terrible_no/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/23/slow_wifi_could_be_houseplants/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUE703TX7jwD_MtPnvZkUAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/telecoms-infrastructure/bt-fined-17.5m-for-999-call-handling-failures
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2017/06/16/three_fined_19m_over_emergency_call_handling/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Revive POTS (Incoming Rant)
Fines are not the answer. That's the horse well over the horizon while the stable doors are being closed.
We _know_ IT network infrastructures can fail. Local outages are "acceptable" as that's the way the tech-cookie crumbles. But to rely on those structures, and those structures alone, for emergency services on a national scale is just a waiting game before Something Bad happens.
The Oct 13 Vodafone & Friends outage was "...triggered by a non-malicious software issue..." Translation, someone fucked up. Someone that was authorised to be doing what they were doing fucked up, not a malicious actor. That would've proven far worse, but that could never happen, could it? That outage left 130K customers up and down the country without comms. Not including affiliated networks. So, what, a few hundred thousand people without the ability to access emergency services? Anyone know the stats on emergency calls per hour per capita? I don't think it's scaremongering to assume that someone lost their life unnecessarily during these national outages.
POTS was robust and resilient. It was (is[1]) self powered. It was fault tolerant and an outage at the national scale was so unlikely as to be non-existent[2] - and certainly not achievable by and individual that (eg) borks a bunch of DNS records.
Practical answer: revive, as fail over, POTS for all. Likelihood of happening: zero. Expensive? Yup. More useful than another GPU stuffed DC? Defo.
So fines? Okay. Criminal negligence? I'm listening. But they don't prevent the issue occurring in the future.
[1] AFAIK there are still medical/welfare services operational for the vulnerable.
[2] Happy to be corrected by those here that worked on those systems.
Re: Revive POTS (Incoming Rant)
If you want the worst of both worlds: Someone I know was just switched to BT Digital Phone. Except he doesn't have a data service on that line.
The solution: His VoIP connection is handled by an ATA at the exchange, and the POTS style connection is carried by the existing pair to the phone in his house.
Digital equipment in the exchange sending analogue phone to the building doesn't half sound like PSTN the hard way....
Companies - get fined
When the regulators fine a company, its the customer who ultimately pays through increased bills
Fine the fat cat CEOs for poor performance and remove at the same time any bonus's they are always entitled too.
SF1
Unfortunately with the switch to VoIP, this sort of thing is only going to get more common. The barrier to attacking the voice call functionality is significantly lowered, and even the biggest or best providers can't fully mitigate against a DDoS partially or fully emanating from compromised customer equipment across their own network without cutting off those customers' services at least temporarily. Not that that kind of attack was impossible prior to the VoIP era, it just required a more specialised skillset and would have been harder to scale.