Phone and broadband outages

What it is

A phone and broadband outage is a loss of mobile, landline or internet service, or all three at once. Be Ready says communication providers are required by law to make their services resilient, but disruption still happens, for example from severe weather, power cuts or a provider failure. Most outages are short or local. After severe weather they can last for days. An outage can affect one network or all of them, and some people can lose service while neighbours do not.

The people most at risk are those who live alone and may be unable to care for themselves, people who rely on personal alarms or connected health monitors such as diabetes sensors, people in rural areas and on islands, and anyone who depends on a landline to call 999.

What it does to a home

In the most serious case the mobile, the landline and the broadband are all down, so you can make no calls and reach no websites. Telecare and health monitors that use the network may stop. Mobile payment apps may fail, which is why Be Ready suggests keeping some cash. Map apps need maps downloaded in advance, although a phone's GPS may still work without signal.

The old analogue landline network is being upgraded to digital, and a digital landline depends on power at your home. Be Ready says it is increasingly unreliable and tells anyone still on it to contact their provider. The Digital Phone Switchover site at digitalphoneswitchover.com explains the change. A power cut therefore often becomes a communications outage as well.

Who warns you

Your provider. Be Ready says providers should keep you informed during an outage and may offer temporary or alternative ways to stay connected. Many run a status page. Ofcom publishes consumer advice, fault guides and a coverage checker, and the government has published information on the resilience of the telecoms sector.

How the government assesses it

The National Risk Register 2025 carries a risk called simultaneous loss of all fixed and mobile forms of communication. Its scenario is a severe storm or flood taking out every mobile and fixed connection in one region, with most fixed lines offline for several days because homes have no power and overhead cables are damaged, and mobiles down until operators bring generators to cell sites. It notes that Storm Arwen in November 2021 cut mobile and fixed connections to millions of customers. In the scenario everyone affected is unable to call 999, so local resilience forums and councils would make proactive checks on the most vulnerable. Ofcom requires providers to take all necessary measures to keep access to emergency organisations and has issued guidance on access during a power cut at the customer's premises.

The register also assesses a cyber attack on a major telecoms provider, with disruption of up to 72 hours that could extend to weeks. It rates the cyber attacks on infrastructure group at impact 3, moderate, and likelihood 4, a 5 to 25 per cent chance.

Where to look

• Your provider's status page.
• Ofcom consumer advice, fault guides and coverage checker at ofcom.org.uk.
• Digital Phone Switchover at digitalphoneswitchover.com.
• Related pages: power cuts, storms, flooding, cyber incidents.