Three guide
Is Three down? Live outage tracker
Three Home Broadband is not a fixed line at all. It is mobile broadband: a 5G or 4G hub that picks up Three's mobile signal and shares it over wifi, the same network that carries Three's phones. That changes everything about its outages. There is no Openreach line to fault and no cabinet to fail; instead, when Three goes down it is usually the mobile network itself, a mast or cell near you, congestion at a busy time or a wider network incident. Three is now part of VodafoneThree following the 2025 merger, though the network runs as before for now.
Because it rides the mobile network, a Three broadband problem is one of a few kinds.
The most common is local signal: the mast serving your area is congested, in maintenance or has a fault, so your hub drops or slows. Mobile broadband is more sensitive to this than a fixed line, because your speed depends on distance to the mast, how many people are on it and even the weather and obstructions between you and it.
The second is a wider network incident on Three's core. The clearest recent example was 23 January 2025, when a major nationwide fault knocked out calls and data for thousands across Three for more than half a day, also affecting the networks that piggyback on Three such as SMARTY and iD Mobile, with some emergency calls hit. When the core goes, there is nothing to fix at your end.
Because Three Home Broadband is a mobile product, Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds does not apply: that code is for fixed lines with a guaranteed minimum speed, and mobile broadband speeds are explicitly not guaranteed, since they depend on signal. So there is no automatic speed-based exit here. Three does offer trial windows on its broadband, so check the terms of any guarantee or trial period you signed up to.
Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme also covers fixed broadband and landlines rather than mobile broadband, so a Three hub outage does not attract the £10.34 a day that a fixed-line total loss would. General consumer rights still apply if the service repeatedly fails to deliver what was sold.
With mobile broadband, the first checks are about signal, not the line. Move the hub to a window or higher up, away from thick walls, and see whether the signal bars and speed improve, because position matters far more than it does on a fixed line. Three's coverage checker and status page will tell you whether there is a known fault or maintenance on your local mast.
If Three cannot resolve a persistent problem, you can escalate to alternative dispute resolution. Three is a member of CISAS, the independent ombudsman scheme, and you can take a complaint there after six weeks without resolution, or sooner if Three issues you a deadlock letter.
If Three's signal is not cutting it, a fixed line is usually steadier, because it does not depend on a mast. Most addresses now have a fixed-line option, whether that is full fibre from Openreach or an altnet or Virgin's cable, and it gives a more consistent connection than mobile broadband for a home that relies on it. The deal finder above shows which fixed-line networks actually reach your address, so you can compare a wire in the ground against the 5G hub.