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O2 Network

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XFool
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O2 Network

#186177

Postby XFool » December 11th, 2018, 3:21 pm

Recently, lots of 'stuff' seems broken.

I'm with TESCO Network - service provided by O2 - using a 2G phone. I haven't had reliable service at my home address (awkward, on the side of a small valley) since about last Wednesday, six days ago.

My local mast is reporting as faulty. But then the O2 online Network Status site has itself been faulty over this period. I gather from contact with TESCO (problems with some of their web based reporting applications too!) that I am not alone, they are having systems problems themselves. They cannot even give me a likely time for it to be fixed. When I first reported the problem direct to O2 I got an auto email from them saying they would monitor and get back to me "within 48 hours". Have heard nothing from them since apart from my direct online contact, to report online O2 Network Status site faulty and get confirmation that "A mast near you is not working...".

Why this difficulty with one(?) base station? Either, something very serious is wrong with it OR - bearing in mind the info from TESCO - something pretty serious and widespread could be wrong such that all O2 engineers are tied up with that leaving none available to fix a base station.

It obviously isn't just me. So, are any other people having problems with O2, know what is going on?

TIA

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Re: O2 Network

#186183

Postby Infrasonic » December 11th, 2018, 3:41 pm

FWIW I now have two mobiles, one 4G smartphone on 3 (unlimited data) and one old skool 2.5G Nokia on a basic Vodafone tariff (good for the hills).
Both on SIM only 12 month contract deals with unlocked phones that I own outright. Cost is just over £28 a month for both.

The reason is I once had the perfect storm of no LL/BB with BT as there was a wire out at the street box (7 days to resolve...), and Vodafone had major issues in Mcr city centre on the same day, so I ended up having to find a phone box to contact both of them.

Next step will be to upgrade the Nokia to a 4G feature/cheap smart phone with some data allowance/tethering to avoid the current SPF issue there.

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Re: O2 Network

#186185

Postby XFool » December 11th, 2018, 3:49 pm

...just got an email from O2: "Sorry... be in touch in 48 hours or sooner if fixed."

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Re: O2 Network

#186187

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 11th, 2018, 3:52 pm

XFool wrote:Recently, lots of 'stuff' seems broken.

I'm with TESCO Network - service provided by O2 - using a 2G phone. I haven't had reliable service at my home address (awkward, on the side of a small valley) since about last Wednesday, six days ago.

.....
Why this difficulty with one(?) base station? Either, something very serious is wrong with it OR - bearing in mind the info from TESCO - something pretty serious and widespread could be wrong such that all O2 engineers are tied up with that leaving none available to fix a base station.


TIA


Where are you ? (approximately, if you don't want to be specific- even a county may help)

Infrasonic
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Re: O2 Network

#186189

Postby Infrasonic » December 11th, 2018, 3:58 pm

https://twitter.com/O2

No idea how good O2 are at personal responses, but I've had up to date maintenance info via 3's twitter feed in the past down to local postcode cell maintenance level, so it might be worth a shot?

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Re: O2 Network

#186199

Postby XFool » December 11th, 2018, 4:34 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Where are you ? (approximately, if you don't want to be specific- even a county may help)

North London.

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Re: O2 Network

#186239

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 11th, 2018, 9:36 pm

Hmm, I was expecting somewhere more remote (side of a small valley...)
The cell density is so great in London there's usually a fair bit of overlap if a site fails - obviously there are exceptions.
If a site's out for a long time it's often access issues - road closures required, hostile landlord(s) etc

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Re: O2 Network

#186252

Postby supremetwo » December 11th, 2018, 11:03 pm

Many others reporting outages via:

https://downdetector.co.uk/problems/o2/map/

Perhaps they are still being affected by the recent software issue?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46499366

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Re: O2 Network

#186262

Postby UncleEbenezer » December 12th, 2018, 12:34 am

The recent issue wasn't software, it was an expired certificate. So that's binary: as soon as it's fixed, the problem is completely gone, no aftershocks.

My O2 has been fine since the national outage. Which I understand affected data, not voice calls (though I had no occasion to try a voice call during the outage, so I can't say for certain).

And I got a text from O2 apologising for the outage and promising a credit to my account in compensation. A very pleasant contrast to certain others.

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Re: O2 Network

#186364

Postby Slarti » December 12th, 2018, 12:58 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:The recent issue wasn't software, it was an expired certificate. So that's binary: as soon as it's fixed, the problem is completely gone, no aftershocks.

My O2 has been fine since the national outage. Which I understand affected data, not voice calls (though I had no occasion to try a voice call during the outage, so I can't say for certain).

And I got a text from O2 apologising for the outage and promising a credit to my account in compensation. A very pleasant contrast to certain others.


During the outage we had nothing at all, one on giffgaff one on Tesco. No data no calls no texts.

And texts took longer to come back on Tesco than giffgaff.

Slarti

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Re: O2 Network

#186368

Postby Infrasonic » December 12th, 2018, 1:37 pm

Slarti wrote:During the outage we had nothing at all, one on giffgaff one on Tesco. No data no calls no texts.

And texts took longer to come back on Tesco than giffgaff.

Slarti


One of the reasons I've never been that keen on MVNO deals, the extra layer for potential ****ups or delays after a major outage.

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Re: O2 Network

#186395

Postby madhatter » December 12th, 2018, 4:36 pm

One of the reasons I've never been that keen on MVNO deals, the extra layer for potential ****ups or delays after a major outage.


Although a friend on Tesco Mobile texted me to say that SMS was working hours before the internet, and was given an extra 2GB of data this month as compensation, compared to the 2 days credit given by O2.

I was less annoyed by the outage than having to wait several days (after texts were working) before seeing any acknowledgement from O2.

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Re: O2 Network

#186401

Postby Slarti » December 12th, 2018, 4:50 pm

Infrasonic wrote:
Slarti wrote:During the outage we had nothing at all, one on giffgaff one on Tesco. No data no calls no texts.

And texts took longer to come back on Tesco than giffgaff.

Slarti


One of the reasons I've never been that keen on MVNO deals, the extra layer for potential ****ups or delays after a major outage.


Now that I'm retired, the cost difference more than makes up for the slight inconvenience of a morning with no mobiles.

Slarti

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Re: O2 Network

#186438

Postby XFool » December 12th, 2018, 7:26 pm

madhatter wrote:Although a friend on Tesco Mobile texted me to say that SMS was working hours before the internet, and was given an extra 2GB of data this month as compensation, compared to the 2 days credit given by O2.

Me too. Just don't know what to do with it on my Nokia 1100! :lol:

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Re: O2 Network

#186439

Postby XFool » December 12th, 2018, 7:30 pm

supremetwo wrote:Many others reporting outages via:

https://downdetector.co.uk/problems/o2/map/

Perhaps they are still being affected by the recent software issue?

Everything sensible says 'no'. That was a data issue; irrelevant to my mobile; has already been fixed; was a simple security certificate issue.

OTOH, coincidence or not, it seemed to start about the same time as that widespread network data problem. Unlike which, it hasn't recovered.

It's a week now. Why should it take a week+ to fix a base station fault in the UK's capital city?

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Re: O2 Network

#186443

Postby XFool » December 12th, 2018, 7:48 pm

Could it be that the old style base station I use is 2G only?

I have seen a few of those newer columnar 3G(?) base stations erected in surrounding streets over the last few years. Could it possibly be that 'my' mast is an old style 2G only and they are now being relegated? Perhaps I am the only person still using it hereabouts!

I can't think of very many other explanations.

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Re: O2 Network

#186445

Postby mc2fool » December 12th, 2018, 7:52 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:And I got a text from O2 apologising for the outage and promising a credit to my account in compensation. A very pleasant contrast to certain others.

Hmmm ... I didn't get anything like that. Or anything at all in fact. Did you register a complaint or something?

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Re: O2 Network

#186584

Postby madhatter » December 13th, 2018, 12:23 pm

XFool wrote:
supremetwo wrote:Many others reporting outages via:

https://downdetector.co.uk/problems/o2/map/

Perhaps they are still being affected by the recent software issue?

Everything sensible says 'no'. That was a data issue; irrelevant to my mobile; has already been fixed; was a simple security certificate issue.

OTOH, coincidence or not, it seemed to start about the same time as that widespread network data problem. Unlike which, it hasn't recovered.

It's a week now. Why should it take a week+ to fix a base station fault in the UK's capital city?


For months I had a service at home varying between 4G and 3G with one bar, when even a page of LF would take a minute or two to load. Buried somewhere in a text from O2 I saw mention of upcoming maintenance work in the postal district just south of me and that the service “might come and go” and a start and finish date.

The day before the start date the service came and went all right! Short spells of 4G and 3G, along with E and No Service. After the finish date the service was (and is) almost solidly 4G, apart from The Outage which was about a week later, a few days after I had renewed the contract!

I said the information was “buried” because it was in one of the routine texts I get from O2 about the bill etc. But whatever they did made a big difference to the signal, and I could easily have missed seeing the reference to it. It may even be part of a wider programme of upgrading the infrastructure, as have noticed a better signal when out fairly close, but probably too far from my nearest base station at home for that to explain it.

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Re: O2 Network

#186597

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 13th, 2018, 12:59 pm

O2 and Vodafone are in the process of combining networks, so you may end up with your O2 service coming from a different site that was formerly Vodafone only. In the majority of cases the new combined site will be 'full stack' 2G/3G/4G

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Re: O2 Network

#186599

Postby XFool » December 13th, 2018, 1:06 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:O2 and Vodafone are in the process of combining networks, so you may end up with your O2 service coming from a different site that was formerly Vodafone only.

Really? I didn't know that.

How ironic, given O2's origins with BT, the two old rivals combine!


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