Virgin Media broadband subscribers saw their services interrupted for around three hours on Tuesday evening (January 17th), it has been reported.

The broadband provider suffered a serious network outage, affecting customers nationwide, reports ISPreview.co.uk.

Problems were first reported at around 17:00 GMT, with services returning from 20:00 GMT.

A Virgin Media statement read: "If you experienced a loss of internet connection… we experienced a national outage during this time, which is now resolved.

"If you have still not been able to reconnect - please try powering down your router for five minutes and then turn back on and this should re-establish your connection."

Virgin Media apologised for any inconvenience caused to its broadband customers.

The outage is the latest hiccup to be suffered by the firm this week, after an email promising an upgrade to 120Mb broadband was accidentally sent to lower-tier customers not entitled to the downloads boost.

Only subscribers on the firm's 50Mb and 100Mb tariffs will see their download speeds increase to 120Mb - those signed up for 10Mb, 20Mb and 30Mb broadband will see their speeds double to 20Mb, 40Mb and 60Mb respectively.