Phone shows 4G but no internet available

[Zway]

Hi,

My phone shows 4G, but I am unable to do anything on the internet, this has been an ongoing issue for over a week. It seems to be occuring throughout the whole day, only occassionally working late at night/early morning (midnight -> 3am). Issue is persistent upon turning off 4g and moving to 3g network.

When I text 'ACTIVE' to 2020 I get a response 'Sorry we?re busy right now. Please try again later. You haven?t been charged for this message' <- question mark typos included.

My parent is having a similar issue on GiffGaff, I'm aware they're a spin-off and use the same towers - but this rules out it being an issue specific to my sim/phone.

I've already contacted o2 but they have said there are no faults in my area, clearly this isn't true.

I just entered a new 12 month contract with o2 and hence received a new sim - but again, don't see how this could be related as its occuring on a different sim, on a different phone on GiffGaff too.

Any help would be appreciated as I've tried everything I can think of.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@Zway 

Sounds like it's most likely to be network congestion if it's not a fault, but you can check for yourself here O2 Service Status and report the issue through the MyNetwork app https://www.o2.co.uk/apps/my-network

[CJ2020]

Having recently moved to O2 from EE , I've seen a drastic reduction in the speed of my data connection. Similar to you, my phone can show the 4g signal but web pages won't load. Having read some posts from those more knowledgeable on here, it's most probably due to the way O2 utilise their 4g network. They use a lower frequency that covers a wider area but it's more congested than say, EE's (higher frequency, less coverage , but less congested therefore quicker). o2 should really be starting to match the high speeds of other networks or they risk losing customers. Me included .