18/07 14:35: update

As we said in our last update, we want to make it up to our customers for the loss of service some people experienced last week.

The issue we had was unprecedented and we recognise that this caused inconvenience and frustration to those impacted over that one-day period.

We have now identified all those customers directly affected (those whose devices could not connect on our system) and we and are giving them the equivalent of three days back for the disruption as a gesture of goodwill and to say sorry.

  • Pay Monthly customers will receive 10% off their July subscription which will be applied on their September bill, which is equivalent to 3 days back
  • Pay & Go customers will receive 10% extra on their first top-up in September 
  • (These will be applied automatically – you don’t need to do anything to activate them)

As a working example, if a Pay Monthly customer is paying £32.00 a month (£26.00 a month subscription plus £6.00 a month 500mb data bolt on), they would receive £3.20 off their September bill

To thank all our customers for supporting us through an unprecedented and difficult period, we are also giving everyone on O2 a £10 O2 voucher to spend in store. This will be redeemable via the O2 Priority Moments app or online at www.o2.co.uk/priority. It will be available between 1st and 30th September to download through Priority Moments and use in store, with no minimum spend. (One voucher can be used per transaction and no change given.)

We will contact all O2 consumer customers and those small businesses with fewer than 10 connections by the end of the day on Friday 27th July giving full details. This will be by text message. Other business customers will receive communications through their account managers or our channel partners in the coming days giving full details.

If you receive an email claiming to be from O2 and asking you to enter your security details on a website, don’t!  This is fake, we’d never ask you to do this.  These fake emails are called phishing emails.  If you’d like more information on phishing, or how to handle phishing emails, have a look at these articleshttp://j.mp/NzrNlI and http://j.mp/OIApSO

Q. Do you know what happened?

A. We have investigated what caused last week’s network disruption and can now confirm that we experienced an unprecedented software fault on the register that works to connect mobile devices to our network. The network is now stable and we are already implementing changes to mitigate  the risk of this happening again.

Q. How do I get the 3 days (or 10%) back on my bill?

A. Pay Monthly customers who were directly affected (those whose devices could not connect on our system) will receive 10% off their July subscription which is equivalent to 3 days back. We will apply this on their September bill. There is no need to do anything – we will automatically apply this.

Q. How do I get 10% on my first September top-up?

A. Pay & Go customers who were directly affected (those whose devices could not connect on our system) will receive 10% extra on their first top-up in September. There is no need to do anything – we will send you a text within 48 hours of topping up confirming that 10% of the top-up amount has been added to your credit.

Q. How do I get my £10 O2 store voucher?

A. To thank *all* our customers for supporting us through an unprecedented and difficult period, we are giving everyone on O2 a £10 O2 voucher to spend in store. This will be available via O2 Priority Moments.

The voucher will be available for download for a month between 1st and 30th September 2012. Customers can text MOMENTS to 2020 to get O2 Priority Moments or

those customers who don’t have a smartphone can register online here. The voucher can be used in any of our 450 O2 stores throughout September with no minimum spend. Only one voucher per transaction and no change will be given if you spend less than £10.

Q. What can you buy with the voucher?

A. The voucher can be redeemed on anything in store, with the exception of Pay & Go top-ups and Pay Monthly bill credits. For example, customers can choose to get £10 off a new handset (even if bought with a contract) or spend the voucher on any of the accessories in our extensive range.  It’s only one voucher per transaction and no change will be given if you spend less than £10.

Q. What are you doing for mobile broadband and iPad data customers?

A. We are using text to update customers so we won’t be communicating directly with you. If you were directly affected we will automatically give Pay Monthly Mobile Broadband customers 10% credit back on their bill in September. Pay & Go Mobile Broadband and iPad customers will get 10% off when they buy data access  in September. There is no need to do anything.

You can also download a £10 voucher from Priority Moments online at www.o2.co.uk/priority as long as you know your number.

14/07 12:42: update

We remain focussed on identifying the root cause of the incident. We want to restore customer confidence and trust so for those customers affected by the lack of service, we will be doing everything we can to make it up to them.

13/07 17:15: update

Now that our full network service has resumed, we remain focussed on identifying the root cause of the incident. We want to restore customer confidence and trust in us so for those customers affected by the lack of service, we will be doing everything we can to make it up to them in an O2 way.

13/07 13:39 update

Our tests show that 2G and 3G services are now back for all affected customers.

13/07 11:15 update

What’s happened?
At approximately 13:30 yesterday we experienced a fault with one of our network systems which meant that some mobile phone numbers were unable to register correctly on our network. Our engineers were deployed as soon as possible and worked throughout the night. They will continue to do until full service is restored.

When did this happen?
The fault occurred at approximately 13:30 yesterday. Service to our 2G mobile service was restored at 08:00 this morning and our 3G service is starting to restore.

Why are only some O2 customers affected?
The fault is not location-specific, nor does it relate to a specific mobile number range. This means that customers have been impacted at random.

Why do I have signal but am unable to make calls, send texts or use data?
The fault is not related to signal strength or network availability from our mobile masts, which is why phones may still be showing full signal. The fault is due to a problem with a network system, which works to register specific mobile phone numbers to the network.

How long will it take to fully resolve the issue?
Our 2G network service was restored at 08:00 this morning, meaning customers can make calls and send texts on 2G. Our 3G service is starting to restore and we expect full service to return to all affected customers this afternoon.

Do you have backup plans?
We have extensive continuity plans which we brought into effect to restore service as quickly as we could.

What are you doing to make sure this doesn’t happen again?
It’s too early to draw any conclusions but we will be conducting a thorough investigation into how this happened.

Is there anywhere I can check for the latest information?
You can also find the latest information on our homepage at http://www.o2.co.uk.

Original post

At approximately 13:30 yesterday we experienced a fault with one of our network systems which meant that some mobile phone numbers were unable to register correctly on our network. As a result, some customers have had difficulty making or receiving calls, sending texts or using data.

We, and our central supplier, have been working through the night and this morning using all possible resources to restore service.

As at 0800 this morning, our 2G network service was restored. Customers who were affected should now be able to make and receive calls on the 2G network (they may find it helpful to turn their phone on and off once)

Our 3G service is starting to restore and customers should expect to see a gradual return of data services as the day progresses.

We will be updating regularly as the situation improves across our status checkerTwitter and this blog post.

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