Is there an outage in my area? How to check power, broadband and mobile in the UK

Is there an outage in my area? Start with the service that stopped

There is no single outage checker for every service. Your electricity comes through one of six network operators in Great Britain, or NIE Networks in Northern Ireland, and they publish their own live lists of cuts. Broadband, landlines and mobile come from your provider, which may have its own status page. So the first question is which thing has stopped.

If the lights, the fridge and the router have all gone off, it is probably a power cut, and your internet and perhaps your mobile signal will go with it. Be Ready says: "You would lose internet connection and possibly mobile signal during a power cut." If the lights are on and only the internet or the phone has stopped, check your provider instead.

Power: check your postcode, then call 105

Our live power cut map has a postcode check against all six GB networks' own outage lists, with homes off and restore times by town. Be Ready's advice is to "visit your local network operator's website to report a power cut and track updates". If you can't report it online, it says to "call 105 for free in England, Wales and Scotland and 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland."

In Northern Ireland, NIE Networks' Powercheck site shows live power cuts and planned outages on a map, with a postcode search. When we read it at 06:52 GMT on 14 November, it said: "There are no active alerts at present." That reflects only what had been reported to NIE Networks at that moment. If your power is off and the map shows nothing, NIE Networks says you can report it online or on 03457 643643.

Write the numbers down now, on paper. In a power cut you may not be able to look them up.

Where the power was off on 14 November: our count

At 13:35 GMT on Saturday 14 November, five of the six GB electricity networks' live feeds listed 68 power cuts open, by our count: 55 unplanned faults and 13 planned work, with 2,494 customers off supply. SP Energy Networks, which covers central and southern Scotland, Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales, didn't respond when we read the feeds, so none of its cuts are in these figures.

SSEN, which covers central southern England and the north of Scotland, had the most customers off, 803, from 18 cuts. UK Power Networks (London, the South East and East of England) also had 18 cuts open, with 279 customers off. Northern Powergrid had 12 cuts and 725 customers off, National Grid's Midlands, South West and South Wales network 15 cuts and 589, and Electricity North West 5 cuts and 98 off.

Earlier the same day, at 06:20 GMT, all six feeds listed 54 cuts and 3,151 customers off; that customers figure left out SP Energy Networks, which doesn't publish one. So more cuts were open by the afternoon, with fewer customers off. For comparison, at midday on 12 November the same maps showed 187 cuts and 7,025 homes off, and at the storm peak on 25 October, 1,009 cuts and 64,517 homes off. Our count of every power cut since September has the full picture. These figures move by the hour; the live map has the latest.

Internet, broadband and landline: your provider's status page

Be Ready, the government's preparedness campaign, says: "Communications providers often have a status page with updates on planned maintenance and significant incidents." It adds that providers "should keep you informed during outages with clear, timely updates on what's happening." Virgin Media, for example, has a service status check on its help site.

Openreach, which says it "owns and maintains the physical network infrastructure", tells customers to go to their own provider first: "If you're experiencing issues with Openreach equipment, contact your broadband or phone provider first."

If your landline isn't working, Be Ready says to try your mobile. For vulnerable customers, such as telecare users, it says the provider must supply a free backup battery unit, so the landline works for at least an hour in a power cut. Our digital landline guide explains the switchover.

Mobile: the network's own status checker

The mobile networks have their own status checkers. O2's, it says, lets you "see if there's a known network connection problem in your area, or to report an unknown issue to us." Three's checker, on its coverage page, "lets you know if there are any issues or planned maintenance in your area". Vodafone has a network status checker on its website.

A recent "Vodafone down?" headline counted thousands of reports, and said there was no UK-wide outage. A count of reports is not the network confirming a fault. When we read Vodafone's newsroom at 06:52 GMT on 14 November, its latest item was dated 12 November and none mentioned a network problem. Its live status checker only loads in a browser, so we couldn't read it.

Be Ready points out that "an outage might affect only certain networks or it could affect all networks", and that "some people could lose service even if others nearby do not." If your mobile network is down but your Wi-Fi works, you may still be able to make calls over Wi-Fi by turning on Wi-Fi Calling, it says. Our guide to when the mobile network goes down covers how long masts last in a power cut.

If you need 999 and can't get through

Be Ready says: "If you cannot reach 999 or 112, try calling from both a mobile and a landline". Emergency calls from mobiles "will automatically connect to any available mobile network", so a phone with no signal on its own network may still get through on another.

If you still can't get through, Be Ready's advice is that, if it is safe to do so, you should seek help directly from emergency responders or go to your nearest police station, fire station, ambulance station or hospital. Be Ready names Relay UK, emergencySMS and 999 BSL as accessible ways to contact the emergency services.

What to have ready at home

None of this needs anything new. Be Ready's advice comes down to two things: write the power cut number down, and keep a wind-up or battery FM radio with spare batteries, because "updates may be given on the radio during an outage". Our Microsoft outage story covers which numbers and details are worth keeping offline, and the power cut guide covers the rest.