TalkTalk says issue affecting access to some websites ‘resolved’

The problem came as many people working from home tried to log on during the coronavirus pandemic.

TalkTalk has said it has “resolved” an issue which affected customers’ ability to access some websites on Friday morning.

Users started complaining on Twitter of connection problems at around 10.30am, as many attempted to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Down Detector website, which allows people to alert others about service issues, also saw a spike in reports.

At around 11am, TalkTalk’s service status highlighted errors loading websites, saying: “We’re aware some customers are experiencing an issue when browsing with web pages loading slowly.

“Our engineers are looking into this as a priority and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

At 11.36am, the company tweeted: “We’re aware that some customers were unable to access certain websites for a short period earlier today.

“The issue has now been resolved and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

The outage came at a critical time for internet service providers, with the country more dependent on broadband than ever for people to continue working, learning and keeping in touch with friends and family during lockdown.

Earlier this month, Ofcom said broadband providers had managed to hold up against a surge in demand, with download speeds only falling an average of 2%.

The communications regulator measured broadband performance for 3,481 users at the beginning and end of March, to compare results before and after lockdown started.

Despite an increase in usage, data suggests the average download speed remained stable, dropping only 2%, although some networks suffered the effects of increased use more than others.