Some customers of mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, are reporting that they’ve been unable to access the provider’s latest and fastest 5G (mobile broadband) connectivity service for the around a month. Related users find that only 4G is now available to them.
The issue, which was picked up by Thinkbroadband, but which has also been spotted by members of ISPreview’s discussion forum community and via social media, appears to be affecting multiple mast sites and may have occurred after the operator’s Access Point Name (APN) settings were updated to an EE profile (58.0). But switching to Lyca’s own APN settings (example) doesn’t resolve the issue, and the same problem doesn’t impact EE’s other MVNOs.
The operator itself has acknowledged, at least to some of those affected, that an issue does exist, although they’ve been vague and haven’t put out a general statement. Lyca Mobile also lacks a proper Service Status page and hasn’t said how long it may take to resolve the problem. As above, many of those affected have been waiting for around a month and so the frustrations are starting to boil over.
Response from Lyca Mobile to Customer (Credits to Ryan)
We are sorry to know that you are unable to access the 5G network.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the lack of 5G signal in your area.
Further to your email, we are facing some 5G issue in Lycamobile network. Our technical team is actively investigating this matter to ensure that any potential network issues are addressed promptly. While we work on resolving this, please be assured that our team is committed to restoring the 5G coverage at the earliest.
At this point it’s separately worth noting that 5G connectivity problems can sometimes also occur on an operator’s network due to issues of device compatibility, although this isn’t relevant to the above issue as 5G was working for those customers before, and on the same phones.
However, Lyca Mobile is known to have had some issues with Google’s Pixel phones in the past, and one of our readers recently reported that they ran into something similar with the Xiaomi 14 on an eSIM (here). We’ve reached out to our Lyca Mobile contact for a comment on the above issue and hope to update this article early next week with their official response.
Separately, Lyca Mobile recently survived a compulsory strike-off action and its company accounts reveal that they’re currently still in dispute with HMRC over an issue related to the treatment of Value Added Tax (VAT), which could be quite costly (a provision of £99m has been recorded to reflect their current best estimate of potential exposure).
Extract from Lyca’s Latest Company Accounts