back to article Brit holidaymakers forced to surf in the sea, not online

Holidaymakers hoping to surreptitiously surf the net from the beach with their Three mobiles were stranded when an outage killed their signal. Web addicts abroad were forced to entertain their kids instead of staring into the soothing glow from their smartphones when a network that carries international traffic for Three fell …

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  1. KroSha

    Not just outside UK

    I had a small outage this morning when my iPad told me I didn't have any data allowance left in my plan. Given that I'm on the 10GB plan, I didn't believe it. It was only for 10 mins or so.

    1. LarsG

      So

      I go on holiday to get away from email, phones, work and all technology.

      Leaving it all behind is like being born again. The only decisions I have to make is where to eat and what to drink, and I don't need tech for that.

      1. Norman Hartnell

        Re: So

        Hang on LarsG, I've got a link to a good restaurant review site you might find useful...

    2. Ross K Silver badge
      Gimp

      Re: Not just outside UK

      Don't believe everything your iDevice tells you. Did you turn it off and on again?

      Nul points however for working details of your Apple product ownership into an unrelated subject...

    3. Jamie Kitson

      Re: Not just outside UK

      Yeah I've been having issues too. There's a recorded message on their support line saying to try turning it off and then on again. The recording's been there for at least a week now.

    4. Andy Livingstone

      Re: Not just outside UK

      About 50 miles from any beach, but this is the norm around here. Three simply call it "Maintenance" once they realize that several phones and several dongles cannot all become defective and then also repair themselves at exactly the same time.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Roaming Blues

    Here in Amman, Jordan, Orange only seems to be able to provide a network signal from 06:00 to aprox 17:30 daily fo us brits. Two colleagues who are on Orage in the UK are suffering the same problem as me with my Thrre phone.

    Strangely, it started on Saturday.

    As it is Ramadan then the chances of anyone from Orange here fixing it before the end of Ede is next to impossible.

    The Orange Shop at the airport is apparently closed for the whole of Ramadan as well so getting a local sim is difficult.

    At least I can get a beer in the hotel.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    sounds like it done them a favour

    when you're on the beach, then maybe you should be thinking about surfing the waves or at least looking at them and relaxing instead of being plugged into the net.

    I like the unplugged feeling of holidays, but then maybe I'm an old git these days !

  4. squilookle
    Coat

    "3 customers trying to use their phones and dongles abroad may have had trouble getting connected,"

    To be fair, that's not many customers affected.

    Sorry, couldn't resist. :(

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook

    I'm on the beach.

  6. Graham Marsden
    Facepalm

    So what's wrong with that...?!

    What is the point of going to the beach if you're just got to sit there yakking on your mobile or texting people?

    Get off your backside and enjoy the waves, dude!

    Surf's up :-)

  7. Matt 21

    Surfing in cornwall

    and I couldn't get any mobile signal at any of the beaches I visited around St. Agnes. Strangely this only served to make the holiday better.

  8. Jess--

    I would imagine Three are more keen to get the problem sorted than their customers, after all they are missing out on all that lovely roaming bandwidth usage at a tidy profit

  9. tony2heads
    FAIL

    Is there a competition going on for the worst mobile operator?

    It might be some obscure new Olympic sport

  10. HuwLewis
    WTF?

    Not on holiday

    Ok, so if you areon the beach with your wife (or someone else's) you shouldn't worry about the net. But some us work outside the UK. My MiFi jobbie stopped working overnight on Friday. (Ít's a rental - but a Three device), fine I thought I can use the shiny new Three Euro pass thingy while they sort it out. That worked for about two hours.

    After a long and expensive phone call to a call centre I was told it was being "addressed" - and be completed in 7-8 hours. That was on Saturday afternoon. At my request they agreed to mail/SMS me when it was back up - to avoid me calling them in 8 hours...

    It started working again this morning (Monday). Still waiting for the call.

    Plonkers!

  11. Velv
    Unhappy

    Holiday in London

    So may not be the same problem, but...

    Went on a long weekend "holiday" to London with friends (Thursday to Sunday). Two of us on Three stopped getting 3G data over Friday night (had been fine all day Thursday and Friday, even at The Oval), and didn't get it back until we returned to Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon. Those on other networks didn't have a problem.

    Anyone else in the UK experience similar problems?

  12. Andy King 2
    Happy

    Ok, broken isn't useful, but £5 for unlimited data aboard a day is good

    Been away and now back so can't comment on the brokenness, but used the £5 unlimited data per day option on 3 and was pleased by speed and also no throttling.

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