topic Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim in Pay Monthly

No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:24:01 GMT

I recently joined O2, everything was working fine, I automatically connected to the O2 wifi hotspots and O2 Wifi Extra on the London Underground, then I done a sim swap and basically moved from a physical sim to an eSim. Once my services returned, I found I could no longer join the O2 wifi hotspots or O2 Wifi Extra.

I deleted my online wireless profile, then went to a hotspot and registered myself, I can now connect to the O2 Wifi Hotspots but I cannot connect to Wifi Extra or even the Virgin Media network.

I've tried everything, restarting my phone, Network Settings Reset, Deleting account and re registering, click on "Not You" and re registering, turning wifi on and off. O2 Gurus and Chat can't seem to figure out why not.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

MI5 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:27:53 GMT

@rsg444

I'm not sure if eSim is compatible with WiFi extra but I'll ask admin to check @Martin-O2 @Marjo @EmilieT ?

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Martin-O2 — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 09:25:39 GMT

Thanks for the mention on this one @MI5!

@rsg444 I'm not aware of any limitations of esim with wifi hotspots but we can certainly find out for you! I'll need a few details so I'll send you a message.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 14:55:36 GMT

@Mart and @MI5 thanks for your help.

I spoke with the Guru team, they asked me to do the usual e.g. restart the phone etc, they checked my o2 wirless account, they checked the wifi mac address which matched what they had, they don't know what is causing this so they've referred this to the next level of support. I should hear within 5 working days - so at some point next week.

A really good post explaining the basics of EAP is here:

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-and-Services/Wifi-Extra-London-Tube/td-p/1044781/highlight/true/page/2

so going by this, it looks like the sim swap process probably doesn't update the eSIM number to whatever system is managing wifi access for wifi extra.

Frustratingly though, the "Guru" didn't know WIFI extra is available on the tube and kept on telling me to connect to the Virgin network instead - which I can't do either as it's saying my phone is number isn't on O2.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Martin-O2 — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 15:37:25 GMT

Great thanks for the update @rsg444! Sounds like it's in hand but please do keep us updated or let us know if anything else crops up.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

KnightGrey — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:50:35 GMT

I’m having exactly the same issue. The phone can’t connect to WiFi extra on tube (it doesn’t ask for a WiFi password). Tried to register through virgin media WiFi but I never receive the text message.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

MI5 — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 17:06:53 GMT

Any updates @Martin-O2 ?

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Martin-O2 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 10:14:25 GMT

Thanks for the mention @MI5. I'll drop you a message to get some details @KnightGrey and see if we can get this one sorted for you.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:46:22 GMT

So, a month on and O2 still can't fix this. I think the bottom line is if you use the Tube network, don't switch over to an eSim as your access to WiFi Extra will be revoked and O2 have no way of figuring out what has gone wrong. I've had a handful of conversations with engineers who then send me a text two days later telling me the issue is resolves, but when I go and check, it's the same problem.

Unfortunately, telling me to simply use the Virgin one instead isn't really a fix.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:47:20 GMT

KnightGrey, are you using an eSim?

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Martin-O2 — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:25:02 GMT

Sorry to hear that you're still having issues with this one @rsg444. If you want I can ask the team to investigate this and hopefully we can get to the cause of the issue and get a solution.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 15:55:30 GMT

Hi Martin,

Many thanks - if you could that'd be great. The engineers are still looking but the don't seem to understand the issue at hand - one of them didn't even know what an eSim was. They don't seem to realise that I can't access Wifi Extra, whether that is underground or in a shopping centre - I am simply not allowed on the network. Others who have switched to an eSim are also facing the same issue.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

rsg444 — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 17:00:11 GMT

O2 still can't figure it out and quite frankly the way this incident has been handled is appalling. If I were to handle my client requests in this way I'd have been on a disciplinary. If O2 can't figure it out then they should say so - at least then I know that once my contract is up I should just move to someone else. But the way it's been handled is so poor I regret switching to O2. No continuity, staff not even understaning the issue at hand, not calling back as promised. What a disappointment.

Basically fellow O2 customers, if you use the London Underground, then DO NOT get an eSim as you WILL NOT be able to use the Tube Wifi and if you ask for assistance they'll keep on thinking that you can't connect to O2 Wifi and tell you to go to your local McDonald's and re register for Wifi there. If only it was that simple. BTW, I've been asked to do this 6 times now - then I was told - Oh just use Virgin then. Best one was "What's Wifi Extra" and "I'm not sure about eSims, what is it?" - these are from their technical experts.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Hx — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 10:49:22 GMT

I have the same issue here - just swap to esim 3 weeks ago and could not connect to wifi extra since!!

If you could keep us posted that would be great! I am now thinking whether I should swap back to a sim card to solve this.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

KnightGrey — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 14:27:37 GMT

Yes I’m using an eSim

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

Qba — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 19:44:19 GMT

WiFi extra is a joke

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

MI5 — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 19:51:00 GMT

@Qba wrote:
WiFi extra is a joke

Spamming this forum won't fix your issue.

If you would like to make just 1 sensible post with all relevant details regarding the issue, we can try and get someone to look at the problem for you.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

iwanttubewifi — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:05:35 GMT

I've been having the same problems as these posters.

I signed up to O2 during the pandemic and wasn't travelling by Tube much - on the rare occasions I was, I couldn't get connected to Wifi no matter what I tried. I got the message "Sorry, we've encountered an error and you have not been signed in" or "Sorry, we're having a few problems at the moment. We're working on it, so have another go later".

Then a few months ago it started working and it was absolutely wonderful.

Now it's stopped working again as of a few weeks ago and I get the message "To use Wifi on the Underground you need to be on O2 and regsitered with O2 Wifi. We'll send you a text with more info on how".

I am registered with O2 Wifi and in any case I never get a text.

Even with the esim being the only active sim in the phone it refuses to connect or to believe that I am an eligible customer.

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

madasaf1sh — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 18:38:04 GMT

@iwanttubewifi

I would reset your expectations on Virgins very poor Tube Wifi, and the fact it doesn't work 99% of the time for customers across all networks hence Vodafone pulled it from there customers.

I have esims and on the odd occasion i go to London it does work, just not very often., and I have a feeling its down to VM's Radius or Authentication Database, which probably hasnt been updated in yonks..

Re: No wifi on the London Underground Tube following switch to eSim

gedl — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 11:16:00 GMT

I have recently changed to eSim as well, and am too unable to connect to Virgin Extra in the underground.

@Martin-O2 you seen to be in charge around here, what are the steps to resolve this issue ?