Some O2 customers are into their second day without a signal after a fault within the operator’s network equipment caused an outage.
The company is yet to reveal the exact nature of the technical fault, which caused the network to fail from 1:30pm yesterday.
However, two months ago O2 confirmed a five year contract to hand over the planning and management of its network to Chinese firm Huawei, leaving questions as to whether the migration was a success.
A number of our readers have also said they had been experiencing outages since the end of June, which O2 put down to “local issues” with the network.
Neither Huawei nor O2 would confirm to Computer Weekly what hardware had faltered, but the equipment is not provided by the networking company, leaving questions about the major technology provider Cisco and if they were to blame. However, three hours after we contacted the networking firm, it finally came back to us saying it had spoken to O2 and confirmed none of its equipment was at fault.
The latest update from O2 said its 2G network was now restored, but 3G was going through a “gradual return” process and should be back by the end of the day.
The only practical advice the operator is offering, however, is to switch handsets off and on again.
“We are sorry again for the inconvenience this has caused some customers and can provide reassurance that we continue to deploy all possible resources, and will do so until full service is restored,” said a statement from O2.
We will bring you more information about the nature of the outage and the progress of fixing it as it comes in.
