Sky broadband went down as crash left hundreds without internet during lockdown

SKY broadband services crashed for hundreds of customers earlier today, leaving them without internet during lockdown.

The problems started around 11am today, with 796 users reporting issues on tracking website Downdetector at its peak.

Sky broadband services crashed for hundreds of customers across the UK earlier todayCredit: Downdetector

However, by 12.40pm this number had dropped to 88 complaints, and Sky later confirmed the issue has now been fixed.

At the height of the problem, 93% of users reported issues with their internet, 5% struggled with TV access and 1% experienced a total blackout.

Sky said the outage affected users in the South Yorkshire area from 11am.

Earlier today, customers complained about issues on Twitter, with one user saying: “@SkyHelpTeammy wife seems to be down and when I run your test thing it says it seems to be down at the moment.

Almost 800 Sky users reported issues with the provider's services after 11am — Almost 800 Sky users reported issues with the provider’s services after 11amCredit: Downdetector

“Issues in Sheffield S35 area?”

While another added: “@SkyHelpTeam my internet doesn’t seem to be working is it currently down? Doncaster dn6 area?”

And a third simply asked: “@SkyHelpTeam internet is down in WF14??”

A spokesperson for Sky told The Sun: “There was a four minute outage to our broadband services this morning in the South Yorkshire area.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused.”

The latest figures from 2018 suggest that Sky has more than 6.1million broadband customers.

Sky broadband last went down in July, affecting customers in the Yorkshire and Humber area.

It also went down in June leaving around 10,000 customers in South East London without internet.

It comes as around 30% of the UK are relying on the internet to work from home during the coronavirus crisis.

Sky has a dedicated page where you can check whether your suffering from a broadband outage, and if an issue is widespread in your area.

You can also use it to check the service for Sky TV, Sky TV apps and Sky mobile services.

This link will take you to the website, where you can enter your landline number to check the service.

You can also run a test on your home wifi to see if there’s anything you can do to get it up and running again.

Broadband and phone customers are usually paid compensation from providers for service or engineer visit issues – but this scheme has been temporarily paused.

Under the current circumstances, providers are less likely to be able to carry out repairs, install new services or make home visits.

Usually customers would get £8 back for every day that the service stops working after two working days of it going down.

Customers are also usually due £25 if an engineer misses an appointment or cancels with less than 24 hours notice.

If there’s a delay to the start of a new service then you will usually get £5 for each day, including the missed start date.

If your service goes down then it’s worth asking for compensation, even if it doesn’t fall into one of these categories.

If you’re unhappy and Sky doesn’t resolve your complaint then you can take it to one of two dispute resolution (ADR) schemes – Ombudsman Services: Communications or Communications and Internet Services Adjustment Scheme.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk