Tasmanians are often the victims of jokes about being behind the times, but it rang true this morning after a mobile phone glitch sent many households into chaos.

Telstra has apologised for a fault that caused thousands of Tasmanian customers to have the wrong time displayed on their phones.

The issue affecting Android operating systems caused widespread confusion, with many people reporting being late to work after their phones were running an hour early.

"An issue that was causing the incorrect time to be displayed on mobile devices for some customers this morning has been resolved," a Telstra spokesman said.

"The correct time is now being progressively restored to impacted devices. If a customer continues to have the wrong time they should try restarting their device.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience that was caused."

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People in Southern Tasmania posted on social media to vent their frustrations and amusement.

"Why did this happen??? I'm confused … my phone told me it was 5:30am at 6:30am!" one user said.

"Stupid thing, had me thinking I sent my kid to catch the bus at 6:30am not 7:30am!" another said.

Another customer said they dropped their partner at work and then panicked that it was an hour too early.

"It did help in my Samsung vs iPhone argument," they said.

A cafe owner said it had resulted in "one of the most stressful mornings of my life".

"Did anyone else's phone on Telstra cook the time this morning? Phone said I was on time, but turned up an hour late to open the cafe. Just had one of the most stressful mornings of my life."

Others reported confusion and family squabbles over the correct time.

"Our house got really confused," one said.

"My husband has a Samsung and I have an iPhone, his phone was saying 1:00am and mine was saying 2:00am!

"He starts work at 2:00am and he was only just getting in the shower! Yep, he was definitely late for work."

Another's children almost had a lucky break:

"Just got up … was about to yell at kids to go back to bed as my phone said 5:00am ha ha ha."