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Hull-based alternative UK network operator MS3, which has deployed their full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 234,000 premises (207k RFS) in the North of England and connected 18,000 customers (mostly in the Hull and Humber region), appears to have returned to life after suffering a major service outage yesterday. But some users may need to reboot their routers.
The outage, which initially appears to have started a little after midnight yesterday morning, was resolved a few hours later but then returned again. The cause of the issue appears to have been a piece of hardware in their London Data Centre (Telehouse North), which we suspect was probably a core network router.
According to one of MS3’s retail broadband ISPs, Squirrel Internet, “the issue followed a change on the network” that MS3 had to reverse or correct (it’s unclear if this was a configuration change or firmware update gone wrong). Several attempts were made during the day to rectify the issue, but these were not successful, until just before 9pm last night when services were finally restored for the majority of customers.
In the end the problematic hardware was replaced, which resolved the outage, but it took a long day of some drama to reach that point.
A Spokesperson for MS3 said:
“Engineers have restored service to the majority of our customers and are completing final checks. Please accept our sincere apologies for today’s outage, which has impacted around 25% of our partner’s end customers.
We will perform extensive reviews to ensure that the future chance of this happening is reduced.”
However, a few of the network’s customers, spread across various ISPs, were still complaining this morning about an inability to get back online. Related internet providers have been telling customers to reboot (switch on and off) both their broadband router and optical network terminals (ONT) to help unstick any remaining connectivity problems. But the latest update from MTH Networks suggests it may not always be so simple.
MTH Networks Service Update – May 15, 2025 at 8:32am
MS3 services remain stable this morning. Engineers continue to work to resolve a number of customers’ connection issues, where services have not been reinstated. Engineers are dealing with the following remaining connection issues:
– A number of connections have known config issues, engineers are actively troubleshooting and expect to have most services restored this morning.