o2 Status Checker Comment

[iar1980]

Hi

I have noticed according to o2 and Vodafone's mast share agreement, o2 will be maintaining Scotland, Northern Ireland and the East of England along with North London, and vodafone will be looking after Wales, West of England and South London.

When i go onto the Live Status Checker Page, o2 only give information of planned maintenance in the respective areas of their agreement, but not in the area where vodafone are looking after their's (i.e. west of England etc).

Any time work is planned in the area i live in (West Midlands) i only get the information off vodafone's network coverage page or by phoning o2 customer service. This information is never shown on o2's Live Status Checker Page.

My question is, has anybody else noticed this, and why do i have to visit a rival network providers page to get information instead of the site of the provider i am paying services for?

[Anonymous]

Hi

Even though they mast share they have their own equipment etc in them.

O2 Service Status should provide you with an indication of current status and planned maintenance.

Possibly one to ask our site O2 staff co Ordinator @Toby

[iar1980]

Hi

Unfortunatly they don't on the status page, when i ring up customer service they tell me via the networks team that work is scheduled for this period. But it is never shown on the status page, but it will show on Vodafone's status page. 

The only message i will ever get is if a phone mast is not working, or they are working on a phone mast, but planned maintenance is another thing.

[Anonymous]

I've asked Toby for clarification.

[iar1980]

Thanks,

I'll give you an example, i was told by o2 that work is scheduled to take place between Monday 16th to Friday 20th at the nearest phone mast to me;

Type:  Heath Road, Wednesbury in both the checker pages and see what you get.

http://status.o2.co.uk/

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/our-network-and-coverage/uk-coverage-map/index.htm?=network

Vodafone will show the maintenance, where as o2 won't, all it will show is sorry working on phone mast, but nothing in planned maintenance.

[Anonymous]

I have looked and do see where you are coming from.

The Service Checker from O2 does highlight work being carried out on a mast, which does clarify to a user having connection issues.

[iar1980]

Yes, but my point being, this message has always been there, as since i joined back in April, everyday i check the status checker and everyday i get the same message sorry working on phone mast or phone mast not working. This is not planned maintenance according to o2's networks team, because when i have spoken to them, they always state, that they have been made aware of a problem and they are working on it and they don't know when it will be resolved, but at other times when i have spoken to the networks team they have told me they have scheduled works to be carried out as my example earlier, but they never put it under planned maintenance, instead you will only see it on vodafone's network status page. 

Don't mean to go on, but i hope you understand where i am coming from, you get more info from a rival provider than your own.

[jonsie]

I agree, it's very poor communication. It's ok acknowledging there is a problem but quite another if there is no timescale for repairs. I know O2 don't give timescales and mast repairs usually have a quick turnaround but two months is bordering the ridiculous. I'm wondering if the mast has been decomissisioned and they are waiting on Vodafone?

[Anonymous]

I know mate honestly.

One of the aspects of this is if O2 gave repair / upgrade turn around times , which we know they don't.

I hope this improves for you as fast as possible.

I had two weeks of intermittent network signal so can perhaps understand your frustration a little. 😞

Communication is the key.

How is this affecting your usage ?

[iar1980]

4g is very poor, it drops off indoors, and only get it upstairs on 2 bars (-103dbm), and off peak the fastest download speed i get is 9/10mbps and this is like 1am in the morning, but when it drops to 3g, the speeds are awful, off peak on 3g (HSPA+) again around 1am is 3/4 mbps max.

My closest phone mast is not 4g, it is 3g with both (3g on 900mhz & 2100mhz), but the 4g phone mast i connect to is around 800 metres away and that is right next to the M6 by J10. That phone mast is small with only 3 antenna's and they all point in the opposite direction too. The other 4g phone mast is around 900 meters away, again right next to the M6 by J9 (Ikea). Again the same problem with that one too.

In relation to calls, it is ok, not suffered any major problems, i pick up better call coverage again upstairs than downstairs, and on 3g rather than 2g.

My issue technically has been going on since i bought a payg sim in March to test out, so their has always been issues since then, and i don't think i have missed a day since then that i have not checked the live status checker page, and you know what, everyday their has been a sorry the phone mast in your area is not working or sorry we are currently working on a phone mast in your area message. You are probably looking at 3 months at least.