Faulty Three UK Mast Disrupts Mobile Connectivity in Handforth for 6 Weeks
Customers of mobile network operator Three UK (VodafoneThree) in the Cheshire (England) town of Handforth, which is home to nearly 7,000 people, have complained to ISPreview that they’ve been suffering from disruption to their calls and data (mobile broadband) connectivity for over a month after the local mast developed a fault.
The existence of a problem, which has resulted in poor (sometimes unusable) call signals, extremely slow data speeds (sub-1Mbps and sometimes as low as 0.1Mbps) and poor latency (between 100 to 500ms+), has been confirmed by support agents to customers (including via MVNO providers like Smarty). But until now locals have not been provided with any information about the cause or when it might be resolved.
Three UK has now confirmed to ISPreview that the problem, which appears to have started at around the beginning of June, relates to one of their local mast sites that has gone down. However, the operator’s engineers have struggled to reach the site due to structural issues with a roof where it’s located, which must be resolved before the network can be fixed.
Advertisement
In addition, there was apparently a separate and unrelated issue at another nearby site earlier in June 2025, which also impacted 4G and 5G signals in the area for a time, but this has recently been resolved. We have not been told what the cause of that issue was or how long it lasted.
A Three spokesperson said:
“A number of customers in Handforth may be experiencing issues with our network due to an issue at our nearby site. We are currently unable to access the site due to structural issues which make it unsafe to work on. Customers should still receive signal from surrounding sites, although it may not be the usual service that we expect to provide.
We are working to fix the problem as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Three recommends that customers who continue to experience issues should contact their support team to report the problem (calling 0333 338 1001), although this seems like an odd request given how they already know about it. Sadly, Three UK could not offer a more specific ETA for the fix.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Openreach Testing Relaxed Rules for UK Exchange Closure Pilot
E6 2LQ has had no access to calls since late June 2025.
I had to open up multiple tickets for Three UK to investigate and they are still working on my mast.
Even today, only SMS messages and data works. Calls (incoming and outgoing) never work. I missed important calls from NHS and Universal Credit helpline.
Same here, NP16 3S has not had working outgoing calls for weeks now.
Three aren’t providing any ETA on the fix and have only offered £5 compensation
Ensure Wi-Fi Calling is enabled on your phone to work around the mast problem.
Does your phone definitely support VoLTE (aka 4G calling)? If not then it could be because an old 3G mast has been turned off in the area which your phone would’ve normally dropped down to to make a call
If it does support VoLTE and it has made calls before while staying on 4G then that’s quite bad by Three as it should use the same IMS data connection as your SMS and data connection
I’m also have great difficulty getting a signal at home. I live in Bradford W Yorks and around two weeks ago my signal stopped working. No data, no calls. Anywhere else, apart from home is fine. My neighbours signal has disappeared He’s on ID mobile and there network piggy backs three network. Called Three to report
If data and sms are working that sound like a phone problem with VoLTE support due to 3G being turned off.
Have you missed any unimportant calls?
1) Ensure Wi-Fi Calling is enabled on your phone to work around the mast problem.
Wi-Fi Calling is enabled on my phone.
Calls were working completely fine in May.
———-
2) Does your phone definitely support VoLTE (aka 4G calling)?
It is an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
I was gifted that phone as brand new from Apple Store for my birthday. I never used iPhones before and that phone was purchased in June 2024
I am pretty sure it has 4G Calling and Wi-Fi Calling.
—————
3) If data and sms are working that sound like a phone problem with VoLTE support due to 3G being turned off.
It is an iPhone 15 Pro Max and calls were working completely fine since June 2024. My SIM is £4 per month with unlimited calls and unlimited texts and I am £377 in credit (I paid for more than 2 years of my SIM all in one go).
—–
4) Have you missed any unimportant calls?
All of my unimportant calls are done on WhatsApp.
If the UK government moved their calls to WhatsApp then I would not be complaining.
Having the same issue with Three in RH15 Postcode for nearly 2 months, again £5 compensation offered, no updates and have to go through same multiple questions and delays whilst they check service every time called to get and update.
This network seems to have more problems than all the other networks combined (or at least reported) including 2 voice outages this year alone. I was with Smarty for 4 months but moved to Lebara after the 1st voice outage in January.
They could have discussed the issue at a parish council meeting, but I hear the chairman refuses to call one. Maybe Jackie Weavers can assist in calling one?
She doesn’t have the authority.
Just leave the network, even if your in contract most networks allow you to leave without a penalty if it is their fault and in this case it clearly is. No point hanging around for 6 weeks. Go to complaints or just email exec office
I wonder if theres any Vodafone coverage, which could be used in the interim, either MOCN or roaming ?
The level of service information, and its timeliness and updates, by all MNOs (and I don’t entirely absolve MVNOs) is abysmal and similar to the level of British Rail platform tannoy announcements of the 1970s: “British Rail regret to inform you that the train due at Platform 3 to Never Getting There is running late” … 5 minutes after it was due!
Statements of the ‘bleeding obvious’ are never particularly warranted, nor are they generally wanted by the service user because they already know there is an issue! Don’t tell us something we already know.
Can’t they push relevant and informative service updates to users directly to their devices by SMS/MMS, either from the mast at issue (if it’s at least partly functioning) or from nearby cell masts, rather than users having to log in to a website on a device that’s not functioning efficiently, if at all?
I get there are safety issues in this case. I’d not want to walk across an unsafe roof to do a job, if that is the root cause of this problem. But surely there are ways around this that don’t require waiting ‘weeks or months’ for maybe the building’s owner to get a builder in to do repairs to make access safe. If it does, this calls into question why the mast is there in the first place.
Absent war or an ‘act of god’, it should not take more than a week, or two at the outside, to rectify mast issues if other cell masts in the area cannot take up the loss of the one cell. If it truly can’t, then roll in the COWs maybe, though I suppose planning regs and licences would then be an impediment to overcome.
Three’s 5G’s masts received planning permission with fraudulent ICNIRP declarations. Vodaphone has acquired a messy and costly problem.
Wish they would sort the issue of calls being delayed, everytime i call someone after 5 mins my voice gets delayed to them by 5-10 seconds, recalling dont sort it either! Been an issue for over a year all they keep doing is giving me discount till its supposedly fixed.
Get Jackie Weaver on the case.
She doesn’t have the authority!
Clearly we need to get Jackie Weaver on the case.
So we have a mid of July and they are still struggling to access the roof where their mast is. What an absolute joke this network is.
Also it is happening in Bournemouth, Dorset, they said it is their mast and engineer’s are trying to sort it out, well its been going on for for nearly 2 months, missed important consultations from hospital
Terrible service from Three, once again. They seem entirely uninterested in providing a solution. I cannot help but notice there is a perfectly good Vodafone signal which could be made available to Three customers by activating roaming or sending out temporary sims. After all, it’s one merged company now.
I’m sorry to say but i have had problems for months but trying to get Intouch with someone that can sort the problem out is a joke , all they keep saying we are fixing the mast .
I live in Handforth and the signal went down in 2024 for a full month where I had no mobile broadband or phone signal (I had three mobile and three home broadband) no messages from three to let me know there was a major problem in the area. It then happened again in 2025 and I have had no home broadband for over two months. Once my three phone contract was up for renewal I promptly left for another network and have now done the same for my home broadband and managed to get 1000mb fibre for the same price as I was getting three mobile. Not to mention their costs price increases mid contract! Never again.