O2 data network falls over again Reports are pouring in that O2's data network is again on the fritz, with users complaining that data connectivity on the mobile network has been down for an hour. The company's website isn't any help as that's down too. The latest outage follows a failure of the data network last week, and the disconnection of roaming …
If O2 can't even run a website (which when it is working is often so slow it's bordering on being unusable) it's no surprise they can't run their mobile network either.
Hopeless. Utterly hopeless. Customer services tell me there is nothing wrong with the network and that I should reboot my phone and so on. *SIGH*
Apple - please, please, please, please let a half decent network sell the iPhone!
I was one of the people that "missed" the sarcasm. I'm still of the strong opinion that mobile broadband is not and should never be considered mission critical. Hell, even domestic fixed line broadband shouldn't be considered mission critical.
How a IT journal can even consider to claim otherwise is beyond me. You have NO meaningful SLAs, NO meaningful KPIs and NO contractual rights to claim compensation for lost business, downtime etc. The most you can ever get is your money back for the downtime - and even then it's only if it's a consecutive 5 day downtime.
Are the Register's server farms running from a laptop with a bluetooth tethered mobile or something?
I was walking along looking at Google Maps when I suddenly got a message saying there was no network coverage. Reception bars were still showing a good GPRS connection though, so I assume I was a victim of this. Grrr - I nearly had to resort to asking an actual person to help find my way.
I lost all phone usage in Central London and back home in south London last Friday. Maybe I was still "roaming" due to being abroad over the weekend. Dunno.
And this whole "data network fails again" is hardly a news story for anyone who works in the City. It barely ever works here anyway.
Useless. But no one seems to mind and so o2 really could not give a f**k.
Paris - because like o2, going down never seemed to do her any harm
This post has been deleted by its author
As you all seem to have accepted the explanation from last week it's clear that none of you understand the architecture for mobile data, there is no DHCP server - the functionality of assigning IP Addresses is done by the GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) and as O2 put all their eggs in one basket that's why the problem was so far reaching then, but hey they are cheap and you get what you pay for.
As somebody has pointed out their personal phone isn't working yet their corporate blackberry is still producing mundane emails it is possible O2 didn't actually fully resolve the problem last week and changed some routing in their network to use the working GGSN that supports idata.o2.co.uk......and has subsequently gone on the blink too?
Paris because she doesn't have a scoobies either!
Mobile data is mission critical here. Which is why mobile devices can do wifi & 3G/2.5G plus a spare SIM with PAYG data (oh and talk) on another network. Oh and USB charging so its not disaster when the battery goes flat and you have no charger ...
Immaturity is no excuse for anything other then ensure you have redundancy/backup which you ought to have anyway. Basic principle in IT, or don't they teach that anymore?
The iPhone nuts.
I bought a new Nokia 6700 Classic last week and noticed that in default configuration it maintains a constant data connection, I've switched this to as needed as I don't use data that often to reduce the load and help out fellow customers.
I've had to force the phone into GSM to make a call as the 3G network is definitely on the fritz and its all the iPhone's fault I reckon.
Bloody cannot bloody activate the bloody cellular bloody network. How the hell can I use the cross-trainer AND work at the same time?!
That may be a wee bit frivolous, but I really do need to be connected when I'm out of the office and these mysterious outages are deeply irritating.
Evil Steve because I think he needs to come over here and show his fangs to Telefonica.
faster than a tart's drawers in Bristol at the moment.
I know this is costing them business as well - A mate bought an iPhone on the 21st, when they were down all day, and is going to return it tonight as data has been down the majority of the day .
How much more before I fire a snotagram at them asking for money off my bill due to them not being able to provide contractual services ...
As a recent iphone nut, I suspect you are not far off the mark. If, as it has been reported before, iphone users use mobile data networks more than any other smartphone users then maybe O2 is struggling under the weight of Apple's and its own success (at being the iphone carrier in the UK).
Personally I would like to break out of the O2 straight jacket and use Three instead and as soon as my Pay&Go 12 months "free" mobile internet/wifi bolt on expires (which you get with all O2 P&G iphones) then I'll put in a Rebel/Turbo/whatever SIM and using my Three SIM instead (by then the hackers will have perfected the unlocker SIM for the 3GS 8-)
and had to do some bloody work (grumblegrumble). Nothing mission critical, mind you,
The irony, however, is that whatever plan my employers have us on features some kind of super-duper bandwidth reducing technology that not only recompresses all images so that you can no longer tell what they're supposed to be, but also futzes some part of The Reg's code so that none of the pages render properly, so I have to wait until I get to a proper connection to whinge about it here.
From my simple deductions it appears to be a DHCP issue which is only affecting certain APN's:-
contract web bolt on APN = mobile.o2.uk :- DHCP ok
prepay broadband dongle APN = m-bb.o2.co.uk :- DHCP broken
iphone contract APN = idata.o2.co.uk :- DHCP broken (from other user reports).
I'd quite like to know what the pre-pay iphone standard apn is and also what the contract bb dongle apn's is too. What I'd really like to know is why the hell do o2 have so many different APN's and why do they say that you 'might' be charged\charged extra if you use the 'wrong one'?
Also why do they have a large range of different passwords for each APN.... e.g. fast/faster and o2web/password + others on mobile.o2.co.uk ?
I personally think it's all to do with legacy devices which have resulted in a complete mess! Things will only get worse once the pre is being sold - I expect yet another set of APN's will be created for the damn thing.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
