Category: 3. Business

Thousands of EE and BT customers have reported they are unable to make or receive calls as the mobile phone and landline networks face an outage.

Outages tracker Downdetector, which relies on self-reported user data, showed over 2,500 EE customers experiencing outages at 14:00 BST, with many also reporting issues with other networks.

Some customers reported issues with making 999 calls, but the government said these had “now been restored”.

A spokesperson from BT, which owns EE, apologised and said the firm was “currently addressing an issue impacting our services”.

“We’re working urgently to fix this issue and will provide a further update as soon as possible,” they said.

Vodafone and Three have confirmed to the BBC they do not have network issues.

Other networks have seen spikes in reports of outages on Downdetector – but these are likely to be customers from networks unable to connect to EE or BT phone numbers.

Social media users have been posting about a loss of services of both EE and BT mobile and landline services.

BT said customers should use 999 as normal.

However, earlier in the afternoon, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Services posted on social media to say there was “a fault with the mobile phone network, including 999 calls”.

But they posted an update at 15:01 BST on X to say 999 calls had returned to normal.

South Western Ambulance Service then posted on X to confirm there was an issue.

The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said the outage had “impacted some customers’ ability to make and receive calls between EE and other networks.

“EE and BT digital voice calls to 999 have now been restored.”

A spokesperson added: “Communications providers have statutory obligations to ensure their networks and services are appropriately resilient.”

EE and BT customer service phone lines are currently down.

One customer posted on an EE forum to say they could not access the help line to arrange an “urgent refund,” while another was unable to get through on behalf of their elderly parents, who made an order with EE.

The UK communications regulator Ofcom says it is in contact with BT “to establish the scale and cause of the problem as soon as possible”.

“Mobile networks and landlines are vital to reach essential and emergency services, it’s important for customers to be reconnected as soon as possible – and kept up to date with developments,” said Ernest Doku, Uswitch mobiles expert.

“If your landline stops working, you will be entitled to compensation if it has not been fixed within two days, but make sure to report the issue to your provider as soon as it happens,” he said.

The issue may have also impacted some customers of mobile phone operators which “piggyback” on EE’s network, with 1pMobile saying it was aware of some issues “affecting a small number of customers”.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and the EE network engineers are working on the issue currently,” it said.

Lyca Mobile and Spusu have been contacted for comment.

BT Group has more than 30 million customers in the UK and made £20.4bn revenue in the last financial year.

The government has increased the maximum price it will pay to companies for the electricity generated by new wind farms.

It comes as ministers are trying to meet challenging pledges to bring down household bills and create an electricity grid that it is almost entirely free of fossil fuels by 2030.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the details ahead of the latest auction for government-backed contracts.

The auction opens in August and will be one of the last which can deliver projects in time to meet the government’s target of Clean Power by 2030.

The Conservatives have described the new prices for offshore wind as “eye-watering”.

The government said the prices would not be what is eventually paid, as companies will put in lower bids to win contracts.

A spokesperson for Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said “the auction will reveal the true price, just like it did last year, where the auction cleared at prices significantly lower”.

Each year, companies who want to build renewable energy projects bid for government-backed contracts.

The government agrees to pay them a fixed price for the electricity they produce for a set period, now up to 20 years, and up to a maximum price known as the Administrative Strike Price, or ASP.

Firms put in bids below the ASP to win project contracts and then the government sets a new guaranteed price, known as the clearing price, based on those.

This year, the maximum guaranteed price for offshore wind will be £113 per megawatt-hour, up from £102 in 2024.

Floating offshore wind, which is a newer technology, is more expensive at £271/MWh, up from £245.

Onshore wind has seen a smaller rise from £89/MWh to £92 while the price for solar energy has come down to £75/MWh from £85/MWh.

Conservative Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “These are eye-watering prices – the highest in a decade and way above the average cost of electricity last year. And this is before the hidden costs of grid, storage and wasted wind which all end up on our energy bills”

She claimed Ed Miliband was putting “Net zero zealotry above the economy or the cost of living”.

The government argues that switching to renewables will protect consumers from volatile gas prices and bring bills down “for good.”

Johnny Gowdy, from not-for-profit group Regen, which advises on transitioning to net zero, said the ASP was about “setting the starting point for the auction; with competitive bids we would expect the actual auction strike price to be much lower”

“There is also a trade-off between volume and price. If the bid prices are high then the government will procure less capacity. If the price is low then the government will be able to buy more capacity.”

He says that the cost of producing offshore wind “probably has risen over the past couple of years” but he adds “we will have to wait and see the auction outcome” to find out how much.

Previous auctions have resulted in a clearing price that was lower than the maximum offered.

There is a risk to setting the maximum price too low.

In 2023, under the Conservatives, no offshore wind developers bid for any projects as they said they weren’t viable at the price offered.

The government has made changes to the system in the hope of attracting more bids to create competition.

For the first time this year, offshore wind projects which don’t have yet have full planning permission will be able to apply for a contract.

The contract lengths have also been extended for wind and solar projects from 15 years to 20 and the Energy Secretary will be able to see developer’s bids before he sets the final overall budget.

A spokesperson for DESNZ said its reforms to the system would “enable a competitive auction that secures the best possible price for consumers while securing the clean energy we need to get us off the fossil fuel rollercoaster.”

People have had a first look at the latest additions to a city’s public transport network – amid fierce debate over what to call them.

Trials have started on Liverpool’s roads to see how the new “rapid transit vehicles” will handle things like roundabouts when they start carrying passengers in 2028.

Critics have described the 59ft (18m) vehicles as “bendy buses” and have said they do not compare with Manchester’s Metrolink tram network.

But metro mayor Steve Rotheram insisted the vehicle on show this week was a “trackless tram”, adding: “If you take the tyres off and put it on rails, it’s a tram.”

Rotheram added: “It doesn’t feel like a bus inside because a bus doesn’t have the headroom.

“It’s a very different type of vehicle – it’s got three sets of doors, so people can get on and off quickly and its 30% bigger than a double decker bus.”

In Belfast the vehicles are called gliders. Their official name is rapid transit vehicles.

Inside, they have seating and standing areas, dark mustard-coloured padded seats and a grey floor flecked with gold sparkles.

In other cities with rapid transit networks, passengers buy their tickets before boarding, speeding journeys up.

Initial routes will link Liverpool John Lennon airport with the city centre and Everton’s new Hill Dickinson stadium.

In Belfast, gliders use dedicated lanes on the city’s roads, and Rotheram said some infrastructure improvements would be needed to in Liverpool to accommodate the vehicles.

He said roundabouts might need to be taken out to “make it easier for these very long vehicles to get through the narrow confines of some of the roads”.

He added: “We want some dedicated road space – not for the whole route, because that causes difficulties for cars, but we want it to have some space where it can make rapid progress and shorten the time people spend on public transport.”

Plans for a tram system in Liverpool date back decades, but they never came to fruition.

The metro mayor said: “We should have had a tram – there should be trams running here now – but that was abandoned because the Lib Dem council in Liverpool didn’t believe in it.”

The Liberal Democrats did run the city at the time the tram project was initially scrapped, but it was the Labour government which said it wouldn’t fund the increased costs.

Rotheram said a “future benefactor” may decide to give Liverpool “billions” to spend on a tram system and if that happened, the infrastructure for the tram would be boosted by the work going on to accommodate the gliders.

Critics have claimed the rapid transit system is not ambitious enough, that Liverpool should have trams, and be bolder about prioritising public transport on the roads.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Liverpool City Council Carl Cashman said: “The fact we’ve got a bendy bus while Manchester gets more investment in their tram network says everything.

“Labour are prepared to allow Liverpool to play second fiddle to Manchester.

“It’s embarrassing that we’ve got a bendy bus, we need a tram.”

Leader of the Liverpool Community Independents Alan Gibbons said: “Where is the ambition? We should have been planning and building a Merseyrail extension to the airport and a tram system like the one in Manchester.”

But some members of the public who saw the branded vehicle for the first time were more positive.

Kieron, who was on a visit to his home city from Dubai where he now lives, said he was impressed with the vehicles but didn’t know what to call them.

He said: “They are brilliant.

“This is a great feature. I like how clean they are, and I like the bend in the middle. Even getting from South Parkway to the airport, you’ve got to get a taxi – so these will be brilliant.”

Rotheram added: “People haven’t seen what this is, and they’ve heard this thing that it’s just a bendy bus.

“Well go and ask the manufacturers who manufacture buses whether this a bendy bus, they’ll tell you this is completely different.

“Basically, if you take the tyres off and put it on rails, it’s a tram.”

He added: “I’m not bothered if people call it a bendy bus, they can call it what they want.

“What I want people to do is experience it and then they can make their mind up.”