The six-step fix
Wi-Fi Calling ON— calls ride your broadband; walls stop mattering.
4G Calling (VoLTE) ON— essential since 3G closed across 2024–25.
Airplane mode for 10 seconds— forces a fresh connection to the healthiest mast.
Install updates— phone and carrier settings.
Move a metre— a window changes the physics.
Status page + postcode— if it's the mast, only the network can fix it.
The five failure patterns
| Hours-long local dead zone | Mast maintenance or fault — wait; nothing on the phone helps |
| Full bars, frozen data | Congestion: stations, stadiums, 5–7pm city centres (documented on O2; inherited by Sky) |
| Older phone won't call | 3G is gone on all four networks — 4G Calling on, or retire the handset |
| One room, always | Building materials — Wi-Fi Calling is the answer |
| Brief oddities | Engineering works (merger-era on Three) — planned works show on status pages |
Big outages & compensation
Rare national outages announce themselves: social feeds light up, the status page confirms, nothing local helps. Keep Wi-Fi Calling on and wait — they usually resolve in hours.
Log everything— dates, times, postcode, what failed.
Report in writing once restored— ask what goodwill applies.
Sustained or repeated loss— push for credit with your log as evidence.
Refused unfairly?— eight weeks or a deadlock letter opens the free ombudsman.