Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Customers of mobile network operator Three UK (VodafoneThree) in the Cheshire (England) town of Handforth, which is home to nearly 7,000 people, have complained to ISPreview that they’ve been suffering from disruption to their calls and data (mobile broadband) connectivity for over a month after the local mast developed a fault.
The existence of a problem, which has resulted in poor (sometimes unusable) call signals, extremely slow data speeds (sub-1Mbps and sometimes as low as 0.1Mbps) and poor latency (between 100 to 500ms+), has been confirmed by support agents to customers (including via MVNO providers like Smarty). But until now locals have not been provided with any information about the cause or when it might be resolved.
Three UK has now confirmed to ISPreview that the problem, which appears to have started at around the beginning of June, relates to one of their local mast sites that has gone down. However, the operator’s engineers have struggled to reach the site due to structural issues with a roof where it’s located, which must be resolved before the network can be fixed.
In addition, there was apparently a separate and unrelated issue at another nearby site earlier in June 2025, which also impacted 4G and 5G signals in the area for a time, but this has recently been resolved. We have not been told what the cause of that issue was or how long it lasted.
A Three spokesperson said:
“A number of customers in Handforth may be experiencing issues with our network due to an issue at our nearby site. We are currently unable to access the site due to structural issues which make it unsafe to work on. Customers should still receive signal from surrounding sites, although it may not be the usual service that we expect to provide.
We are working to fix the problem as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Three recommends that customers who continue to experience issues should contact their support team to report the problem (calling 0333 338 1001), although this seems like an odd request given how they already know about it. Sadly, Three UK could not offer a more specific ETA for the fix.