Compensation rights explained as thousands of Virgin Media customers left without internet

Thousands of people across England have woken up with no internet connection after Virgin Media reportedly went down in a number of areas.

Customers flocked to DownDetector last night (11 December) to report issues they were experiencing with the broadband provider from around 9pm, with issues still ongoing for some people.

It appeared as though most of the complaints came from major UK cities, including Manchester, London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff, though the issue was later confirmed to be localised in Manchester.

Many of the customers who complained to Virgin Media about the lack of internet connection say they were told to expect a fix around 4pm today (12 December), which would mean their broadband would be down for a total of around 19 hours.

"9 hrs so far without Internet. Absolutely shocking. Goodbye Virgin Media!!!!" one affected customer wrote on X this morning, while another added: "Down all night and still playing up this morning."

The source of the issue was traced back to Manchester (Mike Kemp/In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said the internet outage stemmed from a broken cable in the Manchester area, confirming they had been working overnight to fix the issue.

"We’re aware of an issue affecting services for customers in the Manchester area which has been caused by a break in a fibre cable," they said in a statement, as per the Mirror.

"Our engineers have been working flat out overnight to repair the damaged fibres and will continue to do so to restore services as quickly as possible. We apologise to those affected."

Am I entitled to compensation?

If you've been left without an internet connection, you could be entitled to compensation, without needing to formally complain.

All you need to do is report the fault to your broadband provider, who should resolve the issue within two days.

You could be entitled to compensation (Getty Stock Images)

Ofcom, the communications service regulator, provides an automatic compensation scheme which most major UK broadband providers are signed up to, including Virgin Media, BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, Plusnet, Vodafone, and Zen Internet.

Under this scheme, you don't need to make a formal complaint to receive automatic compensation if certain service standards aren't met.

What compensation am I owed for loss of broadband?

If your provider is part of this scheme, you'll get £9.33 for each day your broadband or landline service isn't working, however there is a catch.

You'll only be eligible for this compensation if your broadband isn't fixed within two days. So if it's only down for a day, or even part of a day, you won't receive automatic compensation.

If you're one of the thousands of people experiencing a loss of services, it's recommended you keep records of the outage, including dates, times and any communication you've had with your provider.