topic Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage in Mobile Network discussions

Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Joesee — Wed, 06 May 2026 11:02:11 GMT

Hi,

I've received a SMS saying that there will be a 3 day outage in my area due to maintenance, service was actually disrupted the day before as well. Will you be reimbursing customers at least 10% of their bill? We shouldn't be paying for a service that is down.
Thanks,
Joe

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Northerner — Wed, 06 May 2026 11:13:54 GMT

Hi @Joesee

This is why EE have WiFi calling service to cover these time when maintenance is needed.

Thanks

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Joesee — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:11:42 GMT

Is there no service level agreement? Could EE theoretically be down 100% of the time and still charge everyone full rates?

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Peter_W — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:57:00 GMT

Welcome to the Community, @Joesee

WiFi Calling is a great option for keeping connected in locations where there is no coverage, but I still appreciate service outages are never ideal.

There's no option for automatic compensation with this as there is with broadband, but if you reach out to our team, they'll be able to look into your experience and see what we can do from there.

Peter

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Northerner — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:24:30 GMT

Hi @Joesee

Depends on the circumstances but likely yes, the term is called force majeure which is included in most if not all contracts.

Thanks

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Joesee — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:43:03 GMT

Hi @Northerner

I'm not sure if force majeure applies here. It's not like there has been an earthquake, just a lack of redundancy. I work in IT and we have an SLA of 99.9%, so that's a maximum of 8 hours of downtime a year (including any maintenance). If I caused a 3 day outage I'd definitely lose my job.

But I appreciate that if they haven't guaranteed anything in their contract then they can't really be held to account, I'm just not particularly impressed.

Thanks,

Joe

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

Northerner — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:56:19 GMT

Hi @Joesee

Maintenance is a general term and without knowing the exact reason then is is all hypothetical. It could well be they are improving the infrastructure which will provide a better service when back online but who knows.

As mentioned this is why EE provides WiFi calling.

Thanks

Re: Bill reduction for 3+ day outage

bristolian — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:01:58 GMT

It may be helpful to separate the radio network (which provides local coverage) from the core network (which provides switching, subscriber management & onward connectivity)

Short-duration local outages to individual sites or clusters of sites (the radio network) are part & parcel of an evolving network, and very much a BAU activity. Countrywide, dozens of sites will be offline at any given time for planned works - it's impossible to avoid, networks simply won't improve without them and the T&Cs allow for it.

Over time, without these short-duration single site outages, traffic growth would outstrip local capacity and congestion would become an issue - causing even more customer complaints.

The core network is a different beast, and outages here are very much more controlled due to the potential impact of them. When they are unavoidable, they're usually done overnight when traffic volumes are lower and thus the impact can be controlled. These are the network changes which the OP should be comparing with, rather than radio access ones.