Just in case anyone knows anything about this...
My BlackBerry stopped getting a signal a couple of hours ago. It's on an O2 monthly contract. I've tried contacting O2 through their website but I just keep getting "we're really busy fixing a network issue which we know about" sort of message. Won't even let you mail them at the moment.
Odd thing is, my wife's O2 phone is working fine...
Any thoughts or inside track?
Thanks !
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 11 Jul 12 at 21:17
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Blackberry Woe?
In other words:
" I can't see you
"I don't need you
"what am i supposed to do now?"
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Yes very good Ian ! I sort of asked for that...
Ruddy phone still U.S. though...
:-(
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Parts of the O2 network have fallen over leaving punters unable to make calls, send texts or surf the web from their gadgets.
An O2 spokesperson told The Reg that its phone masts are having problems detecting handsets. The outage, which started at lunchtime today, also affects operators that piggyback on O2's network, such as GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile.
"Our engineers are dealing with the problem as a priority and we hope to restore full service as soon as possible," he said.
The outage isn't discriminating by geography as customers as far apart as London, South Wales and Buckinghamshire were posting on O2's community boards that their phones couldn't connect to the network.
One punter in Nottinghamshire said they had no reception but their sister in the same house had full bars of signal.
If the failure is "back office" authorising existing sims, then its possible yours is on the list of those "lost"
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Let me check locally, and see if we're having problems.
Remember the huge Blackberry fail last year?
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BBC news is reporting widespread problems on O2. Customers unable to access calls, data etc. Not clear whether its regional or selective in some other way.
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The company is on an unstoppable slide to death and destruction. Putting the release of the Blackberry 10 to next year is a bolt to the heart
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Thanks Z ! I feel a bit better about it now. Can't decide whether to shove the SIM in an old phone so I can at least pick up or perhaps turn off the messaging service. It'll be stacking up like Heathrow I shouldn't wonder !
Slightly nervous that might completely lunch it..??
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Funnily enough - my phone was searching fruitlessly for a signal when I got home tonight. There is no signal where I "work" and usually the phone chirps into life on the way back to the car. Turned it off and back on and it acquired the signal.
Last edited by: R.P. on Wed 11 Jul 12 at 18:03
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>> Turned it off and back on and it acquired the signal.
I put mine into "Offline" mode then back into "General" mode. It drops the signal, then searches for a new one from scratch without going through the tedious 60-second startup routine.
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>>
>> Slightly nervous that might completely lunch it..??
>
It won't, but your O2 sim won't work in ANY phone till the issue is fixed.
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Change to a decent network...Vodafone.
Pat
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I can safely say that my Blackberry Curve is the biggest bunch of electronic junk I have ever tried to use but it is surpassed in awfulness by a TomTom 825 Live. I now have an iphone 4 and life is good. I did a swap with Vodafone for the iphone and they know the Blackberryy is such rubbish they haven't even called to collect it!
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Oh ok thanks Z.
You on O2 Rob?
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>> You on O2
No, Tesco Mobile, but basically the same thing.
I had an intermitant signal for nearly 5 weeks a couple of months ago. Tesco ended up compensating me £15 (my monthly tarriff is £12.50) for poor service.
There is a website where you can check for outages, etc, but it's not very accurate with the info it provides.
status.o2.co.uk/
Basically put in your postcode, and off you go. Also provides planned and unplanned outages at the foot of the page.
EDIT - even that doesn't work now either.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 11 Jul 12 at 18:33
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Update.
We have four O2 phones in our household. They're all off now.
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Both O2s fine in Zero Palace.
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Changed the thread title now there's more info. BB have enough to worry about...
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News update
O2 customers faced chaos on Wednesday afternoon when network problems affected their ability to call, text and get online.
A spokesperson for Britain’s second biggest mobile operator said at least "thousands" of customers were affected by the problems.
“We are currently seeing a problem on our network affecting some of our customers. Those customers affected will have difficulty making or receiving calls, sending texts or using data,” the operator said in a statement on their website
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"at least "thousands" of customers were affected "
"a problem on our network affecting some of our customers".
I know they have many many thousands of customers but saying "some of" doesn't sound right.
NatWest made a statement sometime last week that a few customers were still affected by their woes, then later in the statement said up to 100,000.
Economical with the truth springs to mind...
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>> Changed the thread title now there's more info.
Likewise, changed main title of the thread as well.
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The guy I speak mostly to by mobile, our regional engineer, is on the O2 network and uses an IPhone, I think. He gets t'interweb on it anyway.
I find conversations with him most frustrating.....We're always speaking over each other . It was a lot better before they changed network and got all poncey phones. None of the other mobiles I talk to are like this....just a regular conversation each time between them and my Doro geriatrifone or landline.
I don't get involved with the electronic side of the business but I think all the booking and satellite entry systems on the cars are run through the O2 people. Heaven knows what would happen if that lot went frupnys up.
Ted
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>> BB have enough to worry about...
They could start by switching off BB Messenger, then my daughters might actually speak to me.
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you wouldn't understand a word they said anyway.
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Daughters Tesco version not working ( Oxford)
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You on O2 Rob?
Yep.....basic GPRS here - didn't notice the outage in work-time only when it was still "searching" - received a couple of texts and that tonight...
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One of ours ( my son's ) has come back on. Other 3 still brown bread.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Wed 11 Jul 12 at 21:58
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all my friends posh phones are off, my luvly old 3310 full signal - progress? :-)
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>> all my friends posh phones are off, my luvly old 3310 full signal - progress?
>> :-)
>>
Nothing to do with phones. If you were on O2 you might be effected too. My work phone is now O2 (we used Vodafone previously for the last 16+ years).... it is showing a signal but cannot make calls.
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What with this and Natwest (and other recent examples like Blackberry), it just shows how computer dependent we all are whether we like it or not. And the Beeb news website and player was down for part of yesterday.
Shows how fragile we are and vulnerable we would be, should some crafty types decide to launch a crippling attack of some sort on a few well placed organisations.
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Well I have O2 and Iphone combo and to be honest the signal has been erratic all week in Hertfordshire. I have had several customers unable to get hold of me direct and now have a pile of return call post it notes sitting on my desk to plough through today! Just hope I've not lost business because of this - can I sue O2?
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Most O2 voice should be back up, large backlog of SMS and other data traffic to clear tho.
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Son's came back on last night ( smartphone ) This morning at around 8.00 my wife's ( normal cooking phone ) and our spare cheapo PAYG came back on. My BlackBerry fired up a couple of minutes ago.
I had actually decided I was going to enjoy a day or two without the wretched thing...
Hmmm come to think of it. Maybe it's not working terribly well after all...
:-)
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I have iphone/o2 setup and was working ok when I went to bed last night. This morning I have no 3G and cannot make or receive calls. Texts ok though and seem to be going through instantly.
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I sympathise but like Pat I really do not understand why people use a network other than Vodafone.
The old adage applies that cheapest is not always best. Coverage is what I want.
Many years ago when I purchased my first mobile phone back in the eighties I went for the one which had the best coverage to the greatest percentage of population countrywide .
I have stuck with Vodafone ever since .The same reasons apply, I believe Vodafone worldwide coverage is much better than any other network .
Anybody remember what happened to Mercury??
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>> I sympathise but like Pat I really do not understand why people use a network
>> other than Vodafone.
Vodaphone has had its moments of massive failure and lockup
>I believe Vodafone worldwide coverage is much better than any other network .
Honestly, its not. O2 is just as good. In fact as they facility share, you could end up using parts of Vodafone abroad, (as you might end up using part of an O2 /Telefonica associate.
There really is nothing to choose between Vodafone and O2.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 12 Jul 12 at 09:19
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>>There really is nothing to choose between Vodafone and O2<<
There is...our Vodafone network has worked perfectly during the last 24 hours!
I've been with them since having my first mobile phone some 15 years ago and never had a problem like that one.
Pat
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>> >>There really is nothing to choose between Vodafone and O2<<
>>
>> There is...our Vodafone network has worked perfectly during the last 24 hours!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12595681
HUGE Vodafone outage last year.
>> I've been with them since having my first mobile phone some 15 years ago and
>> never had a problem like that one.
I have been with O2 since 1986 and I have never had a problem like that one either, In fact mine was fine all through this problem.
So - I repeat, there is no difference to choose between Vodafone and O2 when it comes to Network and availability.
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>> Anybody remember what happened to Mercury??
>>
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Communications
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>> What with this and Natwest (and other recent examples like Blackberry), it just shows how
>> computer dependent we all are whether we like it or not.
No, I will tell you what this shows us. It shows us that management of these systems is appalling. No proper resiliency, no proper back out and recovery plans, poor system design, and poor management and support.
Banks have been wholly computer dependent since the 70s, never happened in the days when it was outsourced or DP (data processing) departments were properly financed or run (and NOT outsourced to India - which is what brought Nat West to its knees - Ironically the failure will cost them more than they have ever saved)
>> Shows how fragile we are and vulnerable we would be, should some crafty types decide
>> to launch a crippling attack of some sort on a few well placed organisations.
It is recognised as the biggest threat to this (or any other) technology dependent country (it goes hand in hand with economic sabotage). This is where our security should be focused, not the backwaters of Afghanistan.
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>> it was outsourced or DP (data processing) departments were properly financed or run (and NOT
>> outsourced to India - which is what brought Nat West to its knees -
>>
That theory was proved to be wrong.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18648359
"In a letter to Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, Mr Hester explained that every night the bank was processing about 20 million transactions in batches. When an Edinburgh-based team did maintenance work on the system, one of these batch processes failed.
However, the team could not discover at which point during processing the failure occurred. Pin-pointing the exact point of failure led to the huge backlog developing."
www.government-online.net/rbs-boss-says-outsourcing-not-to-blame-for-computer-glitch/
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Actually it wasn't a theory, it was caused by an Indian associate DELETING THE BATCH QUEUE , after the Edinburgh team had backed out the patch to the CA7 batch scheduler. Alas the indian also deleted the journal so they had no idea what had been processed and what hadn't.
You need to know what these spokesman are saying.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 12 Jul 12 at 09:24
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Still getting an intermittant signal.
At least my number exists again now though. Tried calling it from a landline last night and just got the dead tone.
Still unable to access voice mails from my mobile, hence why I tried from a landline last night to do a remote log in.
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Orange France had a major half-day outage over the whole country last week. It was blamed on a 'computer program' fault. I only have a PAYG over here (mobile contracts and call charges are hideously expensive compared to the UK) but they sent an apology and told me to log on to the website for a special offer as compensation. I haven't got around to it but yesterday Darty (Comet group) told me I can have a free SIM with an hour of calls a month for nothing because I use their internet box. So bye bye Orange UK/France after all these years.
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>> No, I will tell you what this shows us. It shows us that management of
>> these systems is appalling. No proper resiliency, no proper back out and recovery plans, poor
>> system design, and poor management and support.
>>
>> Banks have been wholly computer dependent since the 70s, never happened in the days when
>> it was outsourced or DP (data processing) departments were properly financed or run (and NOT
>> outsourced to India - which is what brought Nat West to its knees - Ironically
>> the failure will cost them more than they have ever saved)
>>
As someone with experience in both application and systems programming in the IT departments of three large banks, all I can say is . . . . . HEAR! HEAR!
Management became obsessed with getting "more for less". (No doubt using the savings made to pay mega-salaries to higher management).
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O2 are advising people to turn off 3G in their phone settings if they can't make calls or send txt.
Just as well that I don't have an iPhone 4S then ;o)
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Mine seems to be fine now.
( Famous last words eh? )
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Just in case you O2 users weren't aware, these freebies might cheer you up:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/o2
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O2 says mobile network services are fully restored after fault.
Last updated at 14:02
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18816668
"Our tests now show that all our 2G and 3G services have been fully restored for affected customers," the firm said in a statement.
"If any customers are still having problems we recommend they turn their phone off and on again."
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They advised to switch of 3G because they got the 2G network back and working first. But using 2G for data is slow. 3G is back now apparently.
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Vodafone down now near Stamford Lincs - maybe it is just one or two masts and not the network
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A mate here in dampest Devon has Voda' probs. i.e. NO GO.
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Really? But surely, Vodafone is infallible isn't it? Or so we hear...
:-)
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Not from me you don't! It is the first time I have had problems in my house. Mid-wales is a different matter but many networks have poor/no signal there
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Voda OK in Alnwick Northumbia.
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Still no Voda in East Midlands. My village shop says it has been mentioned on the News but I haven't heard it
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wow my mate will be well impressed with that, He set off from Hull to Chorley, quite some distance, but due to unforseen circumstances his customer had to cancel - being on 02 he wasnt contactable , that £10 reimbursement will satisfy him Im sure .......as he wends his way to another company
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>> O2 offers compensation
Tesco mobile are also offering 10% off monthly bills (or 10% off top up if PAYG), but not offering a £10 voucher to spend in one of its stores. Reason being it was O2's cock up and not Tescos.
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Ah that makes sense now. I was in Dublin on Friday and my signal dropped out around lunchtime. I mentally blamed an international roaming glitch but now it seems to have been a wider issue. Came back on a Dublin - Holyhead ferry late afternoon / early evening and didn't get a signal until we reached Wales but even then it only lasted for 20 minutes or so and dropped again.
All ok by Saturday morning at home. Irritating though. Had planned to nail the backed up emails using my handset on the ferry on Friday evening.
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BlackBerry Woe - Ian (Cape Town)
