Vodafone outage causes customer backlash: What can you do?

Vodafone's mobile network outage has left thousands Australians without access to calls or data services.

The third largest mobile network in Australia has been down since 11am AEST on Friday, leaving thousands stranded without access to Vodafone's 4G network. Many Vodafone customers took to Twitter to voice their complaints and are asking for compensation from the provider, with many jobs being impacted because of the outage.

At the time of writing, the telco said it has identified the problem and is working to resolve the disruption as quickly as possible.

"Mobile customers may experience difficulties making calls and experience slower data speeds this afternoon while services return to normal,"

Vodafone Australia tweeted on Friday afternoon.

"Data services may be falling back to 3G intermittently, causing congestion and slower speeds.

"We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience."

According to technology tracking website Downdetector, more than 10,000 people reported issues across Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

What can I do in the meantime?

Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do but wait for Vodafone to resolve the issue. Keep tabs on its Twitter account to stay up to date with the latest information.

Those who have jobs that rely on mobile access have lashed out, saying the outage has cost them a full day of work.

What on earth is going on with #vodafone ?!?! #dataoutage #nomobiledata #dropouts. I rely heavily on my phone for work and it's REALLY screwed me today. As soon as I pay off this phone. I'm DONE with Vodafone ✌️

— Tash Yole (@tash_yole) April 9, 2021

I can't work without phone and internet ! I m Uber driver and missing out on big $$ on a busy Friday! Can we have updates on how long it is gonna go on for ?! It has been an hour here In Cairns already!

— cecilewilson (@cecilew97848941) April 9, 2021

Will there be compensation?

The outage has left the provider in a pickle with angry customers leaving a barrage of comments on its social media accounts, with many asking for compensation from the provider.

Very disgusted again Vodafone you did it again. Please reimburse your customers free week of services. We lose customers and money. Lets see if Telstra does this to their customers

— Lina Isaac (@linaisaac1) April 9, 2021

It's likely that there will be no compensation from Vodafone, since there is no history of this occurring for other customers during a network outage.

Can I do anything to prevent this from happening?

No one can predict when an outage will happen, and mobile network outages are a pretty rare occurrence.

The last time there was a widespread outage from a provider was from Telstra back in August last year when its NBN services were down over an entire weekend. Vodafone's NBN services have not been affected during today's outage.

While there's no quick fix for getting connected to the network again, if you really need an Internet connection, your best bet is heading to a local cafe or restaurant to work remotely from there using its Wi-Fi network, or your local library.