Virgin Media, one of the UK’s largest telecoms providers, experienced a widespread internet breakdown on Tuesday morning, causing difficulty for users to access the service.
The disruption began about 2am and was reported by thousands of customers, according to data from Downdetector, a website that provides information about the status of internet services.
Later on Tuesday, Virgin Media tweeted to confirm that services had been restored but the cause was still under investigation.
Downdetector found that 74 per cent of users were having problems with their broadband services, while 24 per cent had reported a total blackout.
Reports of the breakdown continued until about 7am on Tuesday.
Downdetector reported similar disruptions at other telecoms providers, including BT, O2 and TalkTalk, between 2am and 7am.
Virgin Media, which is owned by Liberty Global and Spain's Telefonica, has not yet released an official statement on the cause of the breakdown.
Virgin Media experienced a similar breakdown in May 2020.
A National Infrastructure Commission spokesman said the disruption at Virgin Media and other telecoms companies highlighted the necessity of investing in durable and dependable infrastructure.
“Our ageing infrastructure is struggling to keep up with the pace of change and is becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks and technical glitches,” he said.
