BT has advised isp’s today of a serious network problem affecting Broadband customers in the Manchester, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Cumbria and surrounding areas. This is affecting many isp’s and a large amount of customers. The problem appears to have started early this morning.

Details from BT’s fault report system:

Incident Headline: MSIP - MANCHESTER ATM NODE 5 - LOSS OF SERVICE

Incident Details: We are currently seeing alarms and receiving fault reports at MANCHESTER AREA. Engineers are investigating.

Progress Details: Our Engineers are making progress towards full restoration of service.

Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.

Update from 14:00:

The fault has been highlighted as being down to a failure within Alcatel equipment which is being replaced rather than repaired. This should speed up Time to Live rather than waiting for a fix.

BT advise they are continuing to work with Alcatel in Canada who are sending engineers to the UK to test the failed hardware, we can only presume to ensure the problem is not going to take place elsewhere.

A fix time was estimated as 19:30, as soon as we know any more details we will update where possible. Customers should check their providers network status page for updates.

Updated 19:10 :

Updates are starting to show on most ISP's sites now. The following for example was taken from Plusnet:

Following a further update from BT, work is set to continue to repair the hardware affecting the node on the Manchester RAS.

BT are currently awaiting the arrival of this equipment and are set to continue work throughout the night.

The problem has been identified as requiring significantly more work than initially expected and the curerent ETA is 4.00am tommorow morning (Sunday).