Openreach has confirmed that a fault following an overnight software update at its Cowes exchange was behind today’s (Thursday) broadband outage, which left hundred’s of customers across parts of the Isle of Wight without internet.
The company says engineers have now completed repairs and customers should be back online following disruption which affected users of multiple broadband providers.
As previously reported by Island Echo, numerous Islanders experienced problems getting online, with the majority of reports coming from Newport and Cowes. Customers in parts of East Cowes were also affected.
Those reporting problems were using a range of broadband providers operating over the Openreach network, including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, Vodafone, Plusnet and NOW Broadband.
The disruption also impacted businesses, with Poundland, Card Factory and Correo Lounge among those in Newport forced to operate cash-only payments earlier today.
Some Islanders reported experiencing internet problems since last night (Wednesday), while customers of providers including EE and TalkTalk had been advised that the issue could take up to 2 days to resolve.
Openreach has now confirmed the cause of the outage and says the repair is complete.
A spokesperson for Openreach has said:
“We’re sorry to customers on the Isle of Wight who were affected by today’s broadband outage.
“The problem was caused by a fault after an overnight software update at our Cowes exchange. As soon as we identified the issue, our engineers got to work finding the cause, replacing faulty equipment and restoring service as quickly as possible.
“The repair is now complete, and customers should be back online.
“We’re sorry for the disruption and inconvenience this caused, and we’d like to thank customers for their patience while we fixed the problem.”
Another reason why cash should “always” be in circulation.
It annoys me when so many businesses are card only thesedays
and do not accept cash, many don’t mind accepting cash when
technology goes wrong!
Personally I refuse to use any business who does not accept
cash.
Let this be a lesson for them!.