Panicked Scot unable to call 999 during Three mobile outage
A Scots man says he was unable to contact his elderly mother or emergency services after spotting an ambulance outside her home via a security camera, due to a major mobile network outage.
David Henry, a freelance TV producer, was alerted to potential trouble at his mother's home in Methil, Fife, when he received a motion notification from a camera installed at her address.
His mother, who has Alzheimer's, had reportedly flagged down a passerby to call for an ambulance.
When Mr Henry checked the live feed, he saw paramedics attending the scene. He attempted to call her landline but was unable to connect due to a network outage affecting customers of the mobile operator Three.
According to Mr Henry, calls to emergency services also failed to connect as he drove 30 miles from Edinburgh to her home.
'When I got there, the ambulance had just left,' Mr Henry told Edinburgh Live. 'I went to A&E assuming she had been taken there but there was no sign of her.'
He added: 'I was waiting for two hours with no idea where she was or what happened. Eventually they phoned the ambulance service from A&E for me and discovered they had dropped her off at a day care place.'
Three experienced a significant outage on Wednesday, June 25, leaving customers across the UK unable to make or receive calls, including to 999. Mr Henry said he was unable to make any calls, even to emergency services, as he tried to determine what had happened.
'She flagged someone down to call an ambulance which visited her home. I have a camera which sends me alerts to my phone as I'm her carer and keep an eye on things,' he said. 'I tried to phone her. I couldn't make any calls and thought it was engaged.'
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After speaking with a passerby via the camera app, he confirmed that the phone had been placed back on the hook. 'I tried again and it still wouldn't work so I dropped everything and jumped in the car,' he continued.
Mr Henry also said: 'I tried to dial 999 at her house to find out where she was and I couldn't even do that. That is a very serious service error.'
According to Mr Henry, paramedics were also unable to reach him to discuss his mother's medical history and care needs. He only received voicemails and missed call notifications the following morning, after the network issue began to resolve.
'999 is always meant to work, whether you've got credit on your phone or not. This was a complete failure and there is no excuse for it. These systems are meant to be backed up,' he said. 'This is a very serious licence failure so I hope Ofcom take this seriously.'
A spokesperson for Three said: 'We're sorry that Mr Henry couldn't use our network on Thursday. While outages of this nature are rare, we understand the impact they can have and are doing everything we can to ensure it doesn't happen again.'
It is understood Three is investigating why Mr Henry's emergency calls were not rerouted to alternative networks, as required. Data reportedly shows that 999 calls continued to connect in normal volumes on the day, though Mr Henry's experience suggests potential gaps in that fallback system.
A spokesperson for Ofcom confirmed: 'We're aware that Three has experienced problems with its network, and we're in contact with the company to establish the scale and cause of the problem as soon as possible. Phone networks must take appropriate and proportionate measures to reduce the risk of—and prepare for—potential outages. Where we've found failures to do so, we've shown we'll take action.'
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