SFR mobile network down for six hours

MILLIONS of SFR mobile phone customers who lost services for six hours yesterday will be compensated, the company has said.

Nearly four million of SFR’s 21 million mobile subscribers were affected when the company’s mobile network went down for about six hours yesterday, after a fault on new-generation Home Location Register equipment that links subscribers’ SIM card details with their subscription.

It was the longest network failure the company has ever suffered.

Phone and 3G data services were restored by 3pm, but 4G services remained offline and were gradually reintroduced throughout the evening.

Those affected will receive unlimited SMS and 2GB of data service for one month, the company has said.

Subscribers to an SFR Extra service will also be offered a month of free service to CanalPlay SVOD or the iCoyote road risk warning service.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the outage.

Two years ago, rival operator Orange suffered a similar network failure. The outage lasted for many hours and became known as “Black Friday”.