Broadband outage: what to do when your internet is down
There aren't many things more frustrating than your broadband going down. What would you do if your broadband stopped working for over a day? Would you be able to work? How would you keep in touch with friends and family? And what would you watch on TV? Does anyone still have a DVD player plugged in these days?
In this guide, we’ll show you how to check if there’s an internet outage in your area, or if it might be something to do with your home equipment. We'll also list the common causes of outages, and what you can do if your broadband goes down.
What to do when you have broadband issues
If your connection’s dropped to a slow crawl or it’s stopped working altogether, there’s plenty you can do to help diagnose the issue. Whether it’s taking measures to get yourself back online or finding out how widespread the problem is, these six steps may help if you can’t connect to the internet at home.
1. Check if it's just you, or your whole household
The first place to start is by working out who the problem is affecting. If you’re alone at home, take a look at the status lights on your router. If they’ve turned red or amber, or they’re flashing or turned off entirely, it’s unlikely anyone will be able to connect.
If the router looks fine and others in your home are connected as normal, it may be an issue with your specific device. If that’s the case, make sure your phone, tablet or laptop is connecting to the right Wi-Fi network, as your router may show more than one network name.
2. Restart your router
It may sound simple, but switching your equipment and devices off and on again often solves the problem. Turn it off at the wall and wait for 30-60 seconds. Then turn it back on and give it five minutes or so to fully reconnect. It’s worth restarting your device(s) too.
3. Check your provider’s service status
Almost all providers should have online status pages on their websites. Simply fill in your postcode, and any additional location information you have to find out whether the problem is isolated to just your connection, or if it's part of a wider issue. If it’s a known network outage, you should be given a timescale for the fix.
You can also check your provider’s social media pages, as that’s often the first place where any issues are announced.
Try taking a look at the ‘Downdetector’ website too. This is a website that allows users to report issues in real-time. A spike in user reports usually indicates a widespread problem and can often be ahead of a provider’s service status page.
4. Check cables and router placement
Ensure your router has the best shot at providing a clear signal by keeping it away from thick walls and other electronics in your home. Check the cables running in and out of it as well, and make sure they’re fully pushed in.
It may also help for your router to be plugged directly into a socket (rather than an extension lead) and raised off the ground instead of sitting on the floor.
5. Have a backup plan
If you know your broadband will be out for a few hours, there are some backup options you can rely on to stay online. Some providers offer a ‘premium’ add-on service that supplies you with a 4G backup router for your devices to connect to, but there are cheaper, or even free, alternatives too.
Our 2025 broadband outages study showed that half (49%) of UK adults at least occasionally use their home Wi-Fi for work, with respondents predicting that outages have cost their companies an average of £46.40 per person.
A common way people stay online when working from home is by ‘tethering’ their device to their phone’s 4G or 5G signal. So if you have a decent mobile internet connection at home, and enough allowance to rely on your mobile data plan for a few hours, you can connect one device at a time this way.
Though you should always check your data allowance to avoid any nasty shocks to your phone bill, and consider adding more data as a one-off if the fix may take a while.
Check out our latest SIM only deals in case you think you'll need more data.
6. Report the problem
If you’ve worked through everything above and still can’t get online, it’s time to report the fault to your provider. Do this as soon as you can, as any loss of service compensation you may be owed is calculated from the point you report it. It’s a good idea to make a note of the date and time you contact them too.
If the issue is due to your Wi-Fi router, ask your provider to replace it. Just be careful that they don’t get you to pay or sign up for a new contract just to get one. If this is the case, you could just as easily switch to a new provider and get a new router for free.
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Broadband outage compensation
Did you know that you may be entitled to compensation if you suffer a significant broadband outage?
If your connection stops working and isn’t fixed within two working days, you could be owed £10.34 a day. The clock starts the moment you report the issue.
This is Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme, and most of the big broadband providers in the UK are signed up to it. You shouldn’t have to make a direct claim to receive any compensation due to you, so long as your provider is signed up to the scheme, the money should be credited to your bill within 30 days of the fix. There are some limits to be aware of, though. You won’t be paid if:
- Your equipment or something in your home caused the problem
- You’ve broken the terms of your contract
- You held up the repair, such as turning down the first engineer slot offered to you
- Your connection is slow rather than out completely
It’s also worth bearing in mind that it’s specifically based around working days, not weekends or Bank Holidays. So if your connection goes down on a Friday, any compensation won’t kick in until partway through the following week.
Compensation is also paid if an engineer fails to attend an appointment or cancels with less than 24 hours’ notice – in this case you are entitled to £32.31 per missed appointment. You’re also due compensation if there are delays to the start of your new service, with £6.46 paid for each day the service is delayed.
If you’re owed compensation and it hasn’t been paid, contact your provider. If you’re still waiting after six weeks, or you’re unhappy with the response you receive, you can raise a dispute with either the Communications Ombudsman or CISAS. You can visit Ofcom’s ombudsmen complaints page to find out which scheme your provider belongs to.
What causes outages?
Here are some of the most common reasons you might experience an internet outage from time to time.
Faulty connection lines
Sometimes, the cables or equipment on a broadband network will get damaged or stop working. This could be due to extreme weather, vandalism, wear-and-tear or a number of other factors. Roadworks and building work can cause problems too, as nearby cables may be accidentally cut during any digging.
It means that the lines that are vital for transferring internet data to your home will be out of operation until an engineer fixes the issue. It can take a while too, as this type of fault often needs a physical repair.
Planned engineering work
Sometimes the network is down for engineering reasons and the work was planned all along. This is usually just for a few hours and you should be told about it in advance.
Double check your emails and text messages if your internet’s down as the answer could be there for you. Planned engineering work doesn’t qualify for automatic compensation.
High internet traffic
When more people than normal are using the internet at once, like downloading a large update of a popular video game or streaming a big sporting event, there can be ‘congestion’ of the traffic passing through the network.
This causes the internet to slow down significantly and can appear like it’s not working until the network can process all the extra data. This is more common during peak hours, typically 8pm-10pm on weekday evenings, but is becoming less noticeable with the wide rollout of full fibre broadband.
Changes in internet speed
Broadband speeds can vary widely and very quickly. The flow of data through broadband cables is rarely consistent for long, so sometimes a big dip in internet speed can momentarily cause websites, movies or games to stop loading properly for you.
Those on full fibre connections will see this less often because fibre cables are much more reliable, but they’re still subject to momentary blips.
Home equipment issues
Your internet could also be down because of a hardware issue in your home.
Broken, old, or poorly set up equipment can eventually just give out and may need fixing or even replacing. If you think this is why your home broadband is down, visit our internet connection problems guide.
Website issues
Sometimes the issue has nothing to do with your connection and is linked to problems with the website or app you’re trying to access. If everything else loads fine but a specific page or app doesn’t, there’s a good chance you aren’t dealing with an outage to your broadband. Downdetector can be a handy tool here too as it’ll quickly show if other users have reported an issue with the same website.
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Which areas of the UK are worst for broadband outages?
According to our outages research published in 2025, 41% of Brits (some 22.4m of us) lost broadband connection at least once in 12 months. That equated to more than 238 million hours offline.
While Belfast came out the best, with 18% of residents reporting an outage in the 12 months prior to the published findings, 48% of residents in Edinburgh and London reported an outage.
The UK’s outage capitals (% of residents who experienced an outage)
| Rank | City | Residents affected |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edinburgh | 48% |
| 2 | London | 48% |
| 3 | Bristol | 45% |
| 4 | Norwich | 43% |
| 5 | Liverpool | 43% |
Outages weren’t always just a one-off either. 67% of those affected were without a connection for more than three hours at least once, with 21% of those finding the outages occurred more than once a week.
How to handle outages for each provider
Find out how to report a broadband outage to your provider with our dedicated outages guides for each brand.
How long do internet outages last?
Usually, outages are resolved quite swiftly, and the network resumes operation within a reasonable time.
But that isn’t always the case. Some outages can last for hours or even days, which can have a terrible impact on households given how much socialising, streaming, working, and gaming occurs online nowadays.
An internet outage of any length can be inconvenient if it happens at the wrong moment, such as if you’re downloading something important for work or on a video call. So, the length of your internet outage might just depend on the type of problem that’s causing it.
“Following two years of Brits being hit by combined mid-contract price increases of more than £200 a year on average, broadband outages have continued to strike hard.
“Yet many are unaware of the compensation available if they suffer a significant outage. If your connection has completely stopped working and isn’t fixed after two working days, you could be entitled to compensation of £9.76 per day.
“With the majority of the UK’s big broadband providers signed up to Ofcom’s auto-compensation scheme, we would hope to see customers quickly reimbursed if they suffer outages.
“There are a variety of possible reasons for broadband outages – but consumers shouldn’t suffer due to provider issues. If you’re not satisfied with how your internet supplier handles outages, it may be time to vote with your feet and look for other, more reliable options elsewhere."
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