Compensation rights explained as TalkTalk goes down for customers

Thousands of users across the UK are currently reporting issues with TalkTalk – here's what you need to know in regards to potential compensation.

Reports logged on DownDetector earlier this morning (25 March) showed a spike in internet outages across the UK.

According to the website, issues are ongoing across the country but appear to be centralised in the cities of Glasgow, Sunderland, Bristol and Manchester. There has also been reported in the London boroughs of Walthamstow and Westminster.

The complaints peaked between 7am and 8am, with over 5000 people reporting difficulties, however issues appear to be ongoing for numerous users.

"No Internet in York today either..... router looks fine - anything you want to tell us," wrote one person in response to TalkTalk addressing the issues on X.

TalkTalk users across the UK have been reporting connectivity issues today (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"I had no WiFi and because in my area there’s hardly any signal I couldn’t check with you on line so my option was to call you only to being told that you’re not open. Is it too hard to leave us a message to let us know that there is an issue," added a second person.

What has TalkTalk said about the outages?

Addressing the ongoing difficulties on X, TalkTalk issued the following message: "We're aware that some customers may have had issues connecting their Wi-Fi this morning."

The network provider also issued advice for users experiencing issues, adding: "If you're still experiencing this please refresh your browser. Should the issue persist you will need to re-boot your router. We're sorry for an inconvenience this has caused."

Am I entitled to compensation?

Waking up to discover you've been booted offline by your broadband provider isn't particularly ideal, especially when you consider the number of people who work from home on a daily basis.

So are TalkTalk users entitled to financial compensation? Potentially.

Here's what you need to know about compensation eligibility (Getty Stock Images)

Communications service regulator Ofcom offers an automatic compensation scheme which the majority of major UK broadband providers are signed up to.

This includes TalkTalk as well as Virgin Media, BT, Sky EE, Plusnet, Vodafone, and Zen Internet – with customers from these broadband companies entitled to compensation if certain service standards aren't met.

What compensation can I claim?

In order to be eligible after today's internet outage, TalkTalk users need to be offline for at least two days before their connection is fixed. That means if your internet is down for a day, or even part of a day, you won't receive automatic compensation.

For anyone who remains offline for two days, they can claim £9.33 for each day their broadband or landline service isn't working.