What is up with O2 Network !

[Tysonator]

Hi All,

What is happening with the O2 mobile signal as is it pants !

In my home town I get a weak or slow data signal so when I popped in to my local O2 shop enquire about.
I was told it must be my phone as the network is fine !

However, people and friends have the same problem with O2 network, and there is a shopping centre in my town where there is almost no signal !
A printing shop I used a lot have told me that customers who have images on their phone can not e mail the shop while standing in the shopping centre, and what is surprising the O2 shop is apx 60-80 meters away !

What is ever more surprising is the Tesco network seems to have better coverage than O2, and I believe it piggy backs off the O2 network ! ! !

What is going on with O2 ! ?

T

 

[MartinPrince]

Same here in my town. My missus and I both moved from Three to O2 and were shocked at how much worse it was.

The deceptive thing was that my phone was showing full strength bars but when I did a Speedtest I was lucky if it got to 1Mb/s. I can only guess the poor speed is down to oversubscription and not enough bandwidth to support the people using it.

We've been out of contact with them for a year but only put up with the poor speeds because we pay £8.70 for 100Gb and free roaming in the EU and North America etc.
I just spent the whole of the summer in the States and Canada and not having to faff around with paying for local SIM cards was a massive boon.

 

[Tysonator]

I stay with O2 because of the low cost of £8.00 for 25GB, free roaming, and O2 Priority as I have been enjoying some Greggs free food and drink for a very long time,..lol

When I pop in ti the O2 shop every time they tell me it is my phone is the issue. Well this time I am going in with my 6 month old Samsung S24 Ultra 5G, lets see if it is still the phone is the issue ! ! !!

 

[throwaway4372]

I agree the O2 network is poor. Often can't receive calls. Trying to find a job it's very frustrating.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

O2’s parent company Telefonica has been using profits from O2 U.K. and O2 Germany to prop up their stagnent home network for years, leading to lack of investment in their U.K. network.

Anyone with a sniff of talent left their engineering team long ago, so you have the J or possibly K list folks trying to run the network with the oldest infrastructure and the least bandwidth.

 

[Saundie]

I am getting 150mbps on O2's 5G network in Cockermouth - it's significantly faster than the connection provided by the hotel I'm staying in. It's really surprising, as it's nowhere near as fast as this back home in London.

 

[ianh]

I had to ditch GiffGaff who piggyback on O2 because, as someone else mentioned, whilst the signal being received IS genuinely a 5G one, the speed was still <2Mbps even when at its strongest signal which I got in Stoke. When I was in a building (home/work/Tesco's etc) is was virtually zero!

I swapped to Smarty (Three network) and in the middle of Stoke I got 991Mbps from their 5G at full signal, and still got around 40Mbps at my house in the Norfolk countryside, which is a 15min drive from the nearest town (<20Mbps via landline), making me quite happy.

 

[throwaway4372]

I agree the O2 network is poor. Often can't receive calls. Trying to find a job it's very frustrating.

wifi calling started working for me on giffgaff today, wonder if it will solve this issue.

 

[GoRedwings19]

For the past few 2 or 3 weeks I have been having issues with the Three network. Before I had no issues whatsoever. Now I can't use my mobile connection at work and most of the time it won't send msg's or recieve them due to the poor signal/weak internet.

Looking to switch to an alternative network.

 

[Scort]

Been with O2 since the Pixel 6 came out, and Vodafone wouldn't let me cancel the contract that came with it, and move to a SIM only, and have to say, O2 has been pretty poor in both Wiltshire and now down here in Dorset.

Other than poor data speeds when out and about, I often get issues where my calls don't come through on the phone, and I get a text moments later telling me I had a missed call.

If I can find a SIM deal for the price I pay (less then a tenner) I'll probably shift over to another carrier

 

[willhub]

O2 is supposed to share the vodasphone masts as well so unsure why signal can be so poor, in Manchester you can have full bars but no data is getting through.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

O2 is supposed to share the vodasphone masts as well so unsure why signal can be so poor, in Manchester you can have full bars but no data is getting through.

Full bars is an indicator of signal strength and doesn’t mean that there’s any network capacity available as it comes from a dedicated broadcast only “beacon” channel.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

O2’s parent company Telefonica has been using profits from O2 U.K. and O2 Germany to prop up their stagnent home network for years, leading to lack of investment in their U.K. network.

Anyone with a sniff of talent left their engineering team long ago, so you have the J or possibly K list folks trying to run the network with the oldest infrastructure and the least bandwidth.

Telecoms has been in a race to the bottom and it seems now plumbing new depths. I left a major telco in 2013 and underinvestment was rife. The biggest problem is once a project is delivered (new platform, OSS etc.) the investment stops, projects aren't really scoped with in life cost. Once the maintenance agreement with Ciena, Ericsson or whomever expires they seldom renew or go for the cheapest option.

The result is comms suites full of aging layers of crap (there were still mechanical reed switch racks there when I was there) being held together by employees with 30+ year tenures just holding out for their final salary pensions; vendors are only engaged once something is broken beyond their skills. IF the vendor still carries the aging part needed to fix the problem.

Don't even start on security, they still had SunOS 5 running on machines that Indiana Jones would have said belonged in a museum. SSH? What's that? Telnet works perfectly fine...

 

[kona786]

O2 has been naff for as long as I can remember. Them and Three are a no no.

 

[willhub]

It's hard to get away, it's like an ecosystem in a way, them and VM, with VM, double internet speed, double mobile data, 6 months free perks / reduced price perks, free pasties, free coffee, upgrade every 3 months, flexibile plans etc...

 

[andy_mk3]

I've never been with O2 but know and worked with plenty of people that are on O2, many of which are often compaining about speeds or no service at all.

 

[killsta]

O2 are terrible. Also, GiffGaff are just as bad, if not worse, because they claim there is no difference between their data speeds and those of O2, but I have a work phone on O2 and a personal phone on GiffGaff, both next to each other, doing a speed test, and one is 100Mbit and the other 5. Go figure.