O2 not working on 2G?

[Anonymous]

I've recently bought an O2 PAYG SIM to use in a 2G only device.  It will not work at all - I just get "No Network" or "Emergency Calls Only".  I spend about an hour and a half on online chat yesterday, got passed around at least three people and nobody seemed to understand the problem.

• Should a new O2 PAYG SIM work on 2G networks?
• I can't be sure, but I think it may have worked before I transferred my old number to it - is it possible that doing this may have broken it somehow?

It works perfectly on 3G/4G, but as soon as I switch to 2G-only I get nothing - no signal, calls or texts.

When I contact O2 they ask for my postcode, and the service status says there's a problem at my home address.  I've checked it and I know there is, and there has been since I got it - it doesn't say whether it's 2G only, just that there's a problem.  But I drove 200 miles with it on my dashboard along major motorways on Sunday and got no signal ever, anywhere on my journey.

I know that the phone works absolutely perfectly.  It's a little complicated, it's actually a dual-SIM phone.  It supports one SIM in 2G/3G/4G mode and a second in 2G only mode.  The SIM that's being used for mobile data gets all the options, the other has to work in 2G mode only.  I previously had TalkTalk and EE SIMs, and I could switch the data connection to either and the other would work perfectly in 2G mode.  I've now swapped the TalkTalk SIM for this O2 one, and it will work if I switch data to it, but won't if I set it to use the EE SIM for mobile data - the O2 one then won't do anything.

All help gratefully received, I really want to make it work as it should, I don't think I'm asking the impossible, but nobody I've contacted at O2 so far even seems to understand the problem never mind solve it.

[MI5]

Yes it should still work on 2g unless you are in an areas where it’s all been refarmed to 4g.
Going forward though, all 2g will be switch off and refarmed to use the capacity on 4g so the lifespan of your device is limited in the uk.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.  I do understand that 2G will be removed at some point in the future but it should work at the moment and for a while yet.  Mine doesn't work at all, ever, anywhere.

Do people from O2 get involved with this forum?  I've tried direct help and it was hopeless.  My next step will be to make a chargeback for the topup I paid from my credit card company and switch to a different company, as it fundamentally does not work.

[MI5]

Like I said, yes, it should work but will depend if the area has been refarmed. This wouldn't apply everywhere though, so it's possible you don't have the correct apn settings for that sim installed?
Name: o2 Internet
APN: payandgo.o2.co.uk
Username: payandgo
Password: password
is all you need for data to work.

[Anonymous]

I just got a PAC number, and CS have also promised to send a refund of my topup by cheque, so that's that for me and O2, going to Asda Mobile now instead.  They use EE's network, which I already know works with 2G.

Unless BT have switched off 2G everywhere along the M3, M25 and M1, which I doubt, then something went wrong that stopped mine working.  I haven't got the time to waste asking O2 for tech help though, as they don't seem to even know what 2G is, never mind know how to fix the problem.

[Anonymous]

Nothing worked - this isn't about mobile data.  No signal, no calls or texts - it was simply not doing anything at all on 2G.

[Martin-O2]

Hey @Anonymous are you still unable to get a 2G connection on your phone? 

[Anonymous]

Hello.  It shocked me by briefly getting a 2G signal last night while I was away from home, even while using the EE one for mobile data.  As a test, I swapped mobile data to O2 which worked fine, as it always has (as this means that my phone allows it to use 2G/3G/4G).  But then, when I switched mobile data back to EE (which forces O2 to have to use 2G) it didn't reconnect and hasn't ever since.

I didn't move anywhere while doing this - I was literally sitting down in one spot.  It had a full-strength 2G signal at the start, and after swapping and swapping back I was back to getting the familiar "Emergency Calls Only" message where "O2" should be displayed.

I'd still like to find a reliable way of using O2 if possible.  The ASDA sim's still not arrived, but the problem with that is that it's EE - so it wouldn't give any coverage advantage, as I'd then have two EE sims with different brands.  Part of the aim of dual sim is that if one doesn't have coverage I can swap to the other, so it's very preferable to have two separate networks, so O2 would be ideal - mainly because Vodafone is very expensive and Three doesn't do 2G at all (the clue's in the name!).

[Anonymous]

All works perfectly on Asda mobile.  I can only guess that O2 is doing something strange with 2G - perhaps once a SIM has connected to 3G it isn't allowed back on 2G again, possibly some kind of transition plan before switching it off.  All I know is that it should have worked but it didn't.

The latest rumour is that for some networks 3G may be switched off before 2G, so it seems that 2G still has plenty of life left in it.

[Terry-oh-two]

Hi CarbonMonoxide. Found this thread when making decisions about the two networks I'm to use on a new dual-sim phone. It will arrive tomorrow and will have exactly the same limitations (SIM1 4G/3G/2G; SIM2 only 2G) as yours. Since I'd decided on O2 for SIM2 your issue naturally worries me! 

Effectively, for long-term 2G viability, we have to use O2 or Vodafone (or a carrier that piggy-backs on one of them), since Three discontinued its 2G "fallback" service years ago and EE will be phasing out 2G soon to repurpose the band as extra 4G (or 5G?)

I quite like the idea of my 2G-only second SIM so I don't want hassles, naturally....so I think I will shelve my plan to "test my newly obtained O2 SIM in my existing smartphone", given your issue and your thoughts on why the O2 sim might stop working....I'll get it set up only in the new dual-sim phone when it arrives...I'll try to remember to put my experiences on here.