Three network blackout meant man 'unable to dial 999' when mum disappeared
A man who saw an ambulance outside his mum's house through his video camera was unable to call her or the emergency services after a mass network outage. David Henry was alerted to a possible incident at his mum's home in Fife when an alert went off on his phone.
When he clicked onto the camera app, he saw an ambulance outside her address. David, a freelance TV producer, feared the worst as his elderly mother has Alzheimer's, and immediately tried to call her landline and also spoke to a cyclist through the video camera who his mum had flagged down to call an ambulance.
However, due to an issue with Three's mobile network causing chaos a network outage across the UK on Wednesday, June 25, none of David's calls would connect as he got in his car and drove 30 miles from Edinburgh to Methill. When he arrived, the ambulance had just left his mum's house.
David frantically tried to call 999 to find out what had happened and where his mum had been taken, but he claims calls to the emergency services also would not connect.
At the same time, the paramedics were also trying to get through to David to find out details of his mum's condition and medication.
David eventually drove to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy where he assumed she had been taken. After waiting for two hours, he was still in the dark about where his mum was or if she was hurt.
After being approached for comment a spokesperson for Three apologised the network was not accessible. It's understood Three was also investigating why none of David's calls to the emergency services were connected through an alternative network.
Speaking to EdinburghLive David said: "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.
"I saw that and tried to phone her. I couldn't make any calls and thought it was engaged. I eventually spoke to a man through the camera itself and he said the phone is back on the hook can you try again.
"I tried again and it still wouldn't work so I dropped everything and jumped in the car. By the time I got there I just missed the ambulance so I went to A&E assuming she had been taken there but there was no sign of her.
"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.
"I had an extremely stressful day thanks to this. 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. I got all the messages and missed calls through this morning (Thursday). Indeed the ambulance did try phone me to discuss her medical needs."
David raised serious concerns about those who were in need of an ambulance on Wednesday and were unable to get through. A spokesperson for Ofcom confirmed it was in contact with Three to establish the scale and cause of the problem.
David continued: "I went in to A&E and they just said she wasn't on the system so I was there two hours getting more and more wound up. I was thinking 'well where could she be?'
"It was a terrible two hours. Of course mum doesn't remember anything about it and thankfully she wasn't injured.
"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.
"I phoned my friend as I was jumping in the car and that worked on WhatsApp. She then told me it's all over the news there is a mass outage. This is a very serious licence failure so I hope Ofcom take this seriously."
Last year Ofcom fined BT £17million for being "ill-prepared" to respond to a failure of its emergency call handling service in 2023.
In June 2025 BT experienced a network fault that affected its ability to connect 999 calls between 6am and 5pm. During this time nearly 14,000 call attempts were unsuccessful.
A Three spokesperson 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."
An Ofcom spokesperson said: "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.
"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."
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