O2 Data - Rubbish?

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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160,159
I've been having big problems with my data connection on O2/GiffGaff. Put simply, a lot of the time it just plain doesn't work.

Full HSDPA signal, you select a web page on the Desires browser and... it begins to load but never loads the page. The green progress bar just sits on about 15% and thats that. Occasionally it progressed to a 'Page cannot be loaded' error.

Sometimes you can fix it by turning data off and back on again. Sometimes rebooting the phone works. Sometimes you simply have to wait for ages until it eventually decides it can be bothered to work again.

Does anyone else get this or is it just me? It's hugely frustrating.

On a side note I've found the O2 network to be virtually useless over the last 3 weeks. GiffGaffs pricing structure is fantastic but the whole offering is deeply flawed by being on the O2 network. It's terrible. The signal is hugely variable, I get get a 3G signal in considerably less places than I did with Vodafone, it's basically just rubbish :(
 
This is why I'm steering clear of contracts for now, at least you can drop it at a moments notice.
 
It depends on your area, sounds like the local tower is having problems/high traffic?

I've always had a great HSDPA coverage on o2, at one point it was faster/more reliable than my old 2meg boardband :D

I know o2 will not prioritise network traffic over other SP's who "rent" their network... but it wouldn't surprise me if they do for GiffGaff as it's part of o2?
 
I hardly tend to bother with this stuff on my phone, loading simple pages does take a while to the extent where I have to ''turn images off''... no guarantee that the other networks provide a better service though...
 
Never had a problem loading pages when there's good signal.

Having said that plymouth was terrible for O2 signal, it got a bit better last year but compared to most of the rest of the country it's poor. The only other places I have trouble with signal is where I am now (small village/town) and in the countryside.

TBH with your threads about GiffGaff are you sure it's not them instead of o2?
 
I know o2 will not prioritise network traffic over other SP's who "rent" their network... but it wouldn't surprise me if they do for GiffGaff as it's part of o2?

GiffGaff is an MVMO within it's owners other company, o2. Both are run by telefonica ultimately it's an MVMO with a contract like the rest.

Everyone moans about networks, it's always greener on the other side when it comes to coverage but you could probably do a few checks to make sure it's not other issues. I'd try running the speedtest.net app on 3G and on Wifi to check it's not a general radio problem on your phone first. If you can reply with the speeds and amount of signal bars you are seeing we should be able to conclude a few things from it.

It's probably worth calling up o2 and reporting the issue - if anything else it allows them to log the issue then if they see a few from the same postcode they will be able to see the problem that much quicker.
 
I was on O2 before. Had excellent data coverage without any problems...however I guess I live in the city?
 
This is why I remained on Vodafone, despite slightly better offers from mickey mouse resellers. What use is a great price plan if you can barely use the network?
 
This is why I remained on Vodafone, despite slightly better offers from mickey mouse resellers. What use is a great price plan if you can barely use the network?

I completely agree. Vodafone customer service and the way they treat customers is shocking but now I know why - because they know they've got the best network so people will remain with them anyway.
 
[TW]Fox;17811844 said:
I completely agree. Vodafone customer service and the way they treat customers is shocking but now I know why - because they know they've got the best network so people will remain with them anyway.

Vodafone have the best network? I always thought it was o2... or now the T-Mobile/Orange network combined.

Don't vodafone have a smaller customer base compared to other networks?
 
Apart from in my o0ffice at work, deep inside and old mansion house with thick stone walls, my connection on o2 is pretty good, there are tmes when I don't get H or 3g conenctions but on the whole it's ok. This is down in kent, in the countryside most of the time.
 
When choosing a network last i ordered payg sims from o2 and t-mobile, was already on vodafone and it was rubbish. T-mobile was the best (was expecting it to be o2, but only got 2G signal at work), which surprised me because it was the worst 4-5 years ago when i was last on a contract with them. They should improve once they start using orange 3g signal too.
 
Vodafone have the best network? I always thought it was o2... or now the T-Mobile/Orange network combined.

Don't vodafone have a smaller customer base compared to other networks?

No idea what the customerbase is but so far having tried O2 in various areas of the country there is no question that the Vodafone network is considerably better.
 
Its so dependent on where you are, but of the 4 networks I've used recently, Vodafone, Orange, o2 and 3, the worst is Vodafone. My work blackberry is on Vodafone and the number of dropouts we get on them is ridiculous, I though orange was bad with my previous company but its about 1,000x better than vodafone is.
 
The O2 signal around these parts is very good and the data connection is excellent but then it is London.
 
I get perfect HSDPA sometimes but even then I will often request a web page and... nothing happens. The loading bar moves along a bit and thats that, eventually it might load.
 
Gotta agree with above sentiments regarding Vodafone...

I've just moved from Vodafone to Orange and the Orange data network is abysmal compared to Voda's.

Serves me right I guess..
 
O2 is superb throughout London, Bristol, Birmingham and South Wales for me compared to Orange/Vodafone.

I get excellent data transfer speeds on my O2 Desire, and I'm a very fussy person and a heavy data user.
 
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