O2 data problems

[Terminal_Boy]

This outage cost us thousands. There is a bigger issue here than not being able to post selfies.

Our blood couriers all use o2 and GiffGaff. Certain petrol stations/Fuel card issuers use that network too. 6 Drivers unable to pay for fuel.
Because the network went down not all collection requests were able to be put through in time which meant we had to send out extra drivers which had the knock on effect of missed TAT targets.

We've had this before when the 101 service went down last year'ish. We've all become so reliant on the mobile networks that when something like this happens it creates bigger issues than not being able to post a selfie on instagram........

I agree. Even with how reliable modern networks and systems are, you have to have a DR/BCM plan if your business depends on the availability of the network. You could have the best hardware installed by the best engineers but there's always a chance that something could fail and any resilliency offered by the service provider may not kick in. You could pin the blame on the SP and say it's their fault for not testing their own BCM strategy but not having a backup solution yourself especially when you're talking an emergency service or blood carrier, why put yourself in that position?

From my experience these things are normally down to money. You have a system architect telling management to spend X-Y-Z on additional hardware or software but they're not interested in paying for something they may never need.

O2 UK (and DE for that matter) has run on shoe-string budget ever since Telefonica bought them and used their profits to keep their loss-making Spanish network afloat. Like many other network operators, O2 cannot afford to test every single SW and HW update their suppliers deliver and have long since ceased to run a full network operations team.

In fact, I’d be surprised if O2 haven’t outsourced managing network operations to a third party. Three UK’s network is actually run by Ericsson and was managed from Romania when I left their employ in 2008.

 

[wesimmo]

TBH if it is that important to have mobile data you should have a back up plan.

I'm on Giff Gaff so I was impacted, I simply set my work mobile on Vodafone to be a hotspot and used that for my personal phone's data needs.

 

[mattyg]

It wasn't just data. Despite what they may have said. Some of us couldn't make calls or recieve them but strangely NOT at the same time. It was one or the other. And sms failed too. I have 40 drivers around the country a back up system isn't very easy to implement on the move. (short of having 2 mobile phones) And I'm not aware of this impacting us at all in the last 15 years. They had an outage last year but it didn't affect our operations.

Like I said earlier it also effected 6 different drivers around the country who couldn't pay for fuel on via fuelcards.

To be honest we've been thinking of moving to EE since o2 dropped the TUGO app for wifi calling.

 

[GMac11]

Anyone else get a text from O2? One just landed saying I'm getting refunded 2 days worth of air time. Didn't even affect me really as my work SIM is Vodafone.

 

[Em3bbs]

It wasn't just data. Despite what they may have said. Some of us couldn't make calls or recieve them but strangely NOT at the same time. It was one or the other. And sms failed too.

I imagine that so many people restarting their phones at once to try and get data back had a knock on effect on the entire network.

 

[Lakeland]

Refunding two days usage to everyone seems a daft waste of money, especially if people who who put out of business don’t get compensated. I’d rather get nothing and have those seriously affected reimbursed.

Having moved from EE I’m not particularly impressed with the O2 service. It’s OK but EE is definitely superior. I used to get 4g almost everywhere on EE, I’d say I only get it 70% of the time now. It’s not awful but I’ll definitely be going back to EE once the contract is up.

 

[marc2003]

I'm on tesco mobile (PAYG) and they're offering me 2GB of free data "when" I topup in January.... but I often go months without topping up so will probably miss it.

 

[agw_01]

Refunding two days usage to everyone seems a daft waste of money, especially if people who who put out of business don’t get compensated. I’d rather get nothing and have those seriously affected reimbursed.

Having moved from EE I’m not particularly impressed with the O2 service. It’s OK but EE is definitely superior. I used to get 4g almost everywhere on EE, I’d say I only get it 70% of the time now. It’s not awful but I’ll definitely be going back to EE once the contract is up.

+1

I'd rather they only refunded the people who were genuinely out of pocket. It's a noble thing for O2 to do but I wasn't really affected by the outage so am not bothered about the credit. Gotta feel it for the staff in the call centres though. I used to work in a TalkTalk call centre and even when it's an outage completely out of your control, the way people speak to call centre staff is appauling.

O2/EE, I find O2 better for my usage. I used to be with EE (and still am for my work phone) and so far, it's only at the gym where EE surpasses O2 for coverage. I get very little EE signal at home which is a pain when I'm on call and have to rely on Wi-Fi calling.

 

[wesimmo]

Giff Gaff sent me an email today, customers can elect to have the airtime credit from a Goodwill Fund or donate it to charity.

Good move.