BT and TalkTalk internet has gone down: Users unable to connect to broadband across UK

The issue appeared to be caused by a fire in Newcastle

Tess Daly on stage with Jess Glynne, as she stars in a record-breaking drone display to celebrate BT's new brand purpose 'Beyond Limits' at Wembley Arena on October 17, 2019 in London, England (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for BT)

BT and TalkTalk's internet appears to have gone down.

Users complained they were unable to get online through their WiFi connections amid what appeared to be a widespread outage.

The companies are just the latest internet providers to experience problems, following high-profile outages among users of Virgin Media.

Home internet connections appeared to have been largely stable through the lockdown period, though the nationwide reliance on such connections mean even short outages can cause major problems.

According to DownDetector, the issues with BT started escalating at 11:41am UK time, while TalkTalk's issues began at approximately 11:57am UK time.

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The worst affected areas seemed to be London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland, according to reports.

"The earlier issues in the North East of England have now been resolved. We apologise for the inconvenience caused during this time and appreciate your patience whilst we worked to get things fixed," TalkTalk tweeted.

However, some users are still reporting that their internet connection has not resumed.

"We’re aware that some customers are experiencing problems trying to make calls or connect to the internet, mainly in the Newcastle area. This is due to a suspected small fire at one of our sites in Newcastle which was quickly contained and no one was hurt", a BT spokesperson said.

"Our engineers are on site and working to reconnect services as soon as possible. We’re sorry for any inconvenience," they continued.

BT's status page says that users in Newcastle, Jesmond and South Shields areas have been affected.