When will O2 4G be back online? Network finally provides update on when internet will work again
Mobile data should now be functioning again, firm insists
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Your support makes all the difference.O2‘s 3G mobile data network should have returned to full functionality on Thursday night following an all-day outage, the company has said.
But continuing problems with faster 4G connections apparently remained into Friday morning.
O2 and its parent company Telefonica had said they were ”aiming” to have the problems fixed by Friday morning, but O2 later updated the timescale.
It said 3G service should have resumed at 9.30pm UK time, adding that “our technical teams will continue working hard with Ericsson engineers to restore 4G which will bring us back to full network service”.
Shortly after midnight on Friday morning a spokeswoman added: “Our technical teams have started to return our 4G service to our network. We anticipate this will be restored by 3am this morning meaning all our services will be fully restored.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service and share any further updates on our website. We’re sorry for the loss of service our customers have experienced.”“
The issue appears to have been with a piece of software, provided by Ericsson, which is relied on not just by O2 but by other companies that experienced problems, such as Japan’s Softbank.
Börje Ekholm, president and chief executive of Ericsson, said: “The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned and we apologise not only to our customers but also to their customers. We work hard to ensure that our customers can limit the impact and restore their services as soon as possible.”
The company said most of its affected customers had got back online, but that some – presumably including Tesco – were still not working, and that it was continuing to work with them.
On Thursday evening, O2’s chief executive said he was “sorry because we have let our customers down”.
Mark Evans told Sky News restoration of the network had started and it would be completed by Friday morning.
Pressed by Sky News host Dermot Murnaghan if the company would compensate customers, Mr Evans would only say it would “find a way of making an apology in an O2 way”.
Mr Evans admitted, however, he did “not know yet” what “an O2 way” meant.
The problems with the service provide have hit as many as 30 million people in the UK, affecting not only O2 customers but users of the networks that borrow their infrastructure, such as Tesco Mobile and GiffGaff.
It also hit transport networks and other systems that rely on O2’s internet connections to transfer data.
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