No signal for weeks/months in the centre of Middleton, Greater Manchester

[MarkF]

I noticed quite a few weeks ago that the signal from O2 would disappear when I was in Middleton. I kept thinking it was a temporary situation but this seems to have been the case for what feels like months.

I reported it through the app weeks ago.

So the other day I had chance to call in at the O2 shop in the Middleton shopping centre. The guy I spoke to was nice and friendly but knew exactly what I was going to say before I got half way through the first sentence. Seemingly there has been a problem with the mast for weeks now. The guy said the problem was one of access to the mast as it is on top of a very large derelict mill in the centre of Middleton. I can't remember the name of the mill, sorry. The only advice he could offer was for me to write to O2 (even though they are already aware of the problem and have been aware of the problem for some time)

Can anybody throw any light on this situation? Surely there has to be some obligation on O2's part to remedy the situation on behalf of their paying customers in the area?


 

[Enlli]

According to https://status.o2.co.uk/ there is what seems a major problem as they are going a date at the end of January.

This is as much information as O2 will release

As to obligation on O2. Their  terms and conditions stipulate that they cannot guarantee coverage at any location 100% of the time.

[CarmenB]

It's effecting service from Middleton to Victoria Ave, Blackley.

[Enlli]

I can only suggest logging it on a regular basis using the My Network App from O2. That way you have a record if you want to try making a claim

[MarkF]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated.

@Enlli I hear what you say about O2's obligation but surely the Terms and Conditions you mention should refer to the exception rather then the absence of a working signal for weeks on end? I agree that nobody really expects 100% reliable coverage - there will always be the occasional outages, I get that - but this is significantly more than a temporary loss of service. I'm lucky in that I only pass through Middleton every few days. I would not be happy if I lived and worked within the affected area.

[pgn]

Here is a link to the O2 My Network App mentioned by @Enlli - it needs you to register separately from MyO2 app or O2 website, but after that, you can set up places where quality of cellular phone signal is important to you, and it monitors silently and you receive alerts if work is ongoing or there is a fault on any masts servicing any area you marked as important.

https://www.o2.co.uk/apps/my-network

The app also reports quality drops to O2, so your issue gets raised to higher priority over time.

Good luck, @MarkF and @CarmenB.

[MarkF]

Incredibly this issue is still not resolved!!!
I was told that this would be resolved by the end of January (2023). The end of January came and went with the problem still not fixed. My wife called in to the Middleton O2 to be told that the issue was due to be resolved by the end of February (2023)

All this time - since last Autumn - the signal has been unusable in the centre of Middleton. Absolutely disgraceful 'service'. And to make matters worse, when I tried to ring customer services I was faced with 'a 45 minute queue. I eventually did get through to someone. I'm not entirely sure which department I got through to but the lady was really sympathetic and advised me to ring 202 and go through to Billing. The idea being to raise the issue of compensation given that the area has had no usable signal since Oct/November last year. 

I gave up after a while. The queue and 'music' was beyond my patience at this point. Incredibly bad service all round. This issue was reported in Autumn last year. Apparently it takes four of five months to fix or replace a mast. Not impressed, to put it mildly.

[madasaf1sh]

@MarkF 

Part of the course when fixing anything infrastructure wise, as parts are in short supply, and issues with logistics, and access to it, or could be your local council blocking access to repair it or NIMBY's 

Just to give some indication it took 18months or so for BT to fix a mast near Skegness and BT after 2 years have decided to rip a mast out of a location in Scotland due to access issues... 

Maybe o2 will do the same and just turn it off and walk away, i am sorry to say as Middleton has 7 masts covering the area...

[Enlli]

Well, there is little we customers can do about it. Seems there is some sort of signal interference. If so then there will be more than O2 who will have to work on a fix. That will complicate matters

Got this for a couple of areas in Middleton 

 

[madasaf1sh]

Yep that would be OfCom, DCMS, Other networks, CTRL  and even the Police and other enforcement agencies.... 

So could take many more months... as someone is probably illegally using Licensed Spectrum, instead of the unlicensed spectrum