Issues with O2 mobile data when in city/town centres
Discussion
For the last few years, I have been suffering (on and off) with the mobile internet on my phone, and wondered if anyone else had this issue.
I have been with O2 and had the same number for nearly 20 years, but over the last 4-5 years I have an issue where in certain town/city centres my mobile data just stops working. I get 'No internet connection' showing up on Google Maps or whatever I'm trying to use, iMessages and Whatsapps won't send, and I can't open web pages, or if I can they open really slowly.
Once I head out of town, or to somewhere less populated, my data speed seems back to normal and works really fast. I can be in a village pub somewhere in the sticks and 4G will be rapid, but in the centre of Manchester, or London or wherever, it will sometimes slow down and then eventually grind to a halt and I get the 'No internet connection' warnings.
This doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be annoying.
Phone calls always work fine. Incoming and outgoing.
I spent a few weeks trying to cure the issue with O2 but they just didn't seem to be able to work out what the problem was. They sent me a new sim and switched me over to that, then they did something else involving disconnecting my number from their network, then reconnecting it later in the day. None of this has made a difference.
Usually when I'm in a city centre and my phone stops working, I borrow my wife's phone which is on EE, and there is never an issue. It is always fast no matter where she is.
I have had about 3 or 4 different iPhones over the time it has been happening, and it has been the same with all, so I don't think it is the phone.
I suggested to O2 it was maybe a network capacity issue, such as when you are at a festival or Goodwood or wherever and you can't make a call or send a message due to there being tens of thousands of people trying to use a couple of cell sites, but O2 said it couldn't possibly be that as all their customers would be leaving them if their phones stopped working in a city centre, so suggested it was an issue unique to me.
Any ideas before I finally give up, sack off O2 after 20 years, and move to EE?
I have been with O2 and had the same number for nearly 20 years, but over the last 4-5 years I have an issue where in certain town/city centres my mobile data just stops working. I get 'No internet connection' showing up on Google Maps or whatever I'm trying to use, iMessages and Whatsapps won't send, and I can't open web pages, or if I can they open really slowly.
Once I head out of town, or to somewhere less populated, my data speed seems back to normal and works really fast. I can be in a village pub somewhere in the sticks and 4G will be rapid, but in the centre of Manchester, or London or wherever, it will sometimes slow down and then eventually grind to a halt and I get the 'No internet connection' warnings.
This doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be annoying.
Phone calls always work fine. Incoming and outgoing.
I spent a few weeks trying to cure the issue with O2 but they just didn't seem to be able to work out what the problem was. They sent me a new sim and switched me over to that, then they did something else involving disconnecting my number from their network, then reconnecting it later in the day. None of this has made a difference.
Usually when I'm in a city centre and my phone stops working, I borrow my wife's phone which is on EE, and there is never an issue. It is always fast no matter where she is.
I have had about 3 or 4 different iPhones over the time it has been happening, and it has been the same with all, so I don't think it is the phone.
I suggested to O2 it was maybe a network capacity issue, such as when you are at a festival or Goodwood or wherever and you can't make a call or send a message due to there being tens of thousands of people trying to use a couple of cell sites, but O2 said it couldn't possibly be that as all their customers would be leaving them if their phones stopped working in a city centre, so suggested it was an issue unique to me.
Any ideas before I finally give up, sack off O2 after 20 years, and move to EE?
Lord Marylebone said:
Any ideas before I finally give up, sack off O2 after 20 years, and move to EE?
I had the same issue when I moved to O2 earlier this year; five bars of signal but no data working.Their network services team admitted their cell network in my town was hopelessly overloaded and their were no plans to fix it. Although I had gone beyond the cooling off period they happily cancelled my contract.
Changed to EE who have data where there is coverage, but the coverage is worse than O2.
PF62 said:
I had the same issue when I moved to O2 earlier this year; five bars of signal but no data working.
Their network services team admitted their cell network in my town was hopelessly overloaded and their were no plans to fix it. Although I had gone beyond the cooling off period they happily cancelled my contract.
Changed to EE who have data where there is coverage, but the coverage is worse than O2.
That is exactly the same issue. Five bars of 4G but no data. Happens in small towns and larger conurbations alike.Their network services team admitted their cell network in my town was hopelessly overloaded and their were no plans to fix it. Although I had gone beyond the cooling off period they happily cancelled my contract.
Changed to EE who have data where there is coverage, but the coverage is worse than O2.
Interestingly on the coverage aspect, I find EE to be excellent (from observing where my wife's phone works or doesn't) but I appreciate that depends entirely where in the country you are.
At my work location in West London I now have to switch my phone down to 3G to get any data at all even though 4G reports 2 bars. Thought this was a local problem but definitely noticed in other places as well.
You can see the phone sending data but never receives anything back.
You can see the phone sending data but never receives anything back.
Edited by dogbucket on Monday 8th November 18:35
I'm on GiffGaff which runs on O2's network and have not experienced the issues raised except when I was in Newuay last summer during the Boardwalk festival and it was clear the network couldn't cope.
As a rule thoguh I travel all over the U.K to many major cities and never have the issues raised.
As a rule thoguh I travel all over the U.K to many major cities and never have the issues raised.
Jamescrs said:
I'm on GiffGaff which runs on O2's network and have not experienced the issues raised except when I was in Newuay last summer during the Boardwalk festival and it was clear the network couldn't cope.
As a rule thoguh I travel all over the U.K to many major cities and never have the issues raised.
I had the same experience whilst in Blackpool recently with O2. The network was almost completely saturated for data around the town centre, which was surprising as it was only early October - I shudder to think what it must have been like over the peak summer. It was clear the infrastructure was built to cover the more stable off-season resident numbers plus some extra capacity, rather than comfortably catering for the more variable holiday season crowds.As a rule thoguh I travel all over the U.K to many major cities and never have the issues raised.
O2 has had a couple of rough patches over the last couple of years or so, where the network has neglected investment in its own network. There was a failed takeover of O2 by Three and it's only now that the merger between O2 and Virgin Media is starting to see real world movement.
O2 has been w
k in London for years literally no data. There has been a "mast down" it's the just don't seem to be doing anything about it.
That and with the huge outage a few years ago that cost me a lot of money in lost work, that was the end of my dealings with o2
On Vodafone now which is mostly ok apart from they have stopped allowing you to use the underground Wi-Fi which is annoying.
k in London for years literally no data. There has been a "mast down" it's the just don't seem to be doing anything about it. That and with the huge outage a few years ago that cost me a lot of money in lost work, that was the end of my dealings with o2
On Vodafone now which is mostly ok apart from they have stopped allowing you to use the underground Wi-Fi which is annoying.
Yep, sounds like a capacity issue with the cell(s) you're on.
You'll get a full signal strength but due to contention, there will be no available time-slots for your device.
Someone mentioned dropping to 3G... If you _need_ a connection, this should work but it's a faff to be doing it all the time.
M
You'll get a full signal strength but due to contention, there will be no available time-slots for your device.
Someone mentioned dropping to 3G... If you _need_ a connection, this should work but it's a faff to be doing it all the time.
M
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