Mon, 15 Dec 2025

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 Ofcom investigates BT and Three for failing to connect 999 calls

The companies have been fined in the past over outages leaving customers unable to call emergency services.
Ofcom Investigates BT and Three Over Mobile Outages
* Ofcom is investigating BT and Three over mobile outages that caused "UK-wide disruption", including to emergency services.
* Thousands of customers reported issues making calls on both networks, with Three experiencing problems in June and BT/EE in July.
* The regulator will examine whether the networks did enough to prevent the problems.
* Both BT and Three have apologized for the incidents and are cooperating fully with Ofcom's investigation. Incidents Caused Concerns
* A third-party software configuration change triggered a spike in network traffic, causing disruption to voice services on Three's network.
* The outage also affected customers of other networks that piggyback off of Three.
* BT was fined £17.5m in July 2024 for a "catastrophic failure" of its emergency call handling service. Regulatory Requirements
* Ofcom says firms must take proper action to identify risks and prepare for network or service disruptions.
* They must also prevent adverse effects from such compromises and take steps to mitigate them.
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