Network busy 50% of the time

[Anonymous]

I'm getting really frustrated by this. Myself and all fellow O2 subscribers in the office in the Oxford Circus area of London live with about a 30% now increasing 50% network busy rate in this area. There just doesn't seem to be the network capacity in this area that it needs for the number of people here.
Now the Christmas shoppers are arriving making an already busy area even busier.
3G web access is also equally unreliable.

O2 really need to pull their finger out and do something about areas like this.

Orange and Vodafone seem to be OK in the same area.
Doesn't matter what phone you have.

Does anyone else have this problem? Ever complained and eventually had something done about it?
Do O2 read these forums?

[adamtemp64]

this has been discussed at length in the iphone section.

but a recent press release from o2 says things will improve. http://o2.com/media/latest_pr_14522.asp

but if you turn 3g off you will revert to o2 2g and most say that allows calls through.

O2 may read but do not comment on here it is just us customers

[Anonymous]

Thanks, it was sure to be one of those frequent topics, nothing obvious came up in a quick search though.
Christmas 2009 things are meant to improve. OK we'll see what happens then.

[Anonymous]

o2 have been somewhat caught off guard by the popularity of smartphones and internet usage. It's gone from something that most people didn't take much notice of (browsing limited wap pages over gprs on a small monochrome screen) to a vital commodity that many people use constantly (streaming, email, web browsing). They're currently investing an absolute fortune in improving the current network especially in London which is literally at saturation point.
The main issue is that the likes of streaming video takes up as much network at 500,000 sms sent at once which takes up a huge amount of space on the network and also everybody goes around with 3g turned on and uses it for simple calls and texts leaving the normal 2g network and Edge under utilised. It's very true that if you turn 3g off and use 2g that you will have a near perfect service for calls and texts. Remember, before 3g came along o2 was renowned for it's great coverage and, albeit 2g, it's still there and available.
o2's network in the London area is getting gradually better and should be at a level where people can use 3g as much as they like by some time in 2010.

Meanwhile up north...it works perfectly

[Anonymous]

I'm now wondering if there is a way to get the phone to only use 3g (3.5g) when absolutely neccessary, 2g the rest of the time.
No one at O2 and no instruction book tells you any of this.
Thanks for the tips, I'll have a go at manually switching it when I've looked up how to do it.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
Cheers

PS. it works perfectly for me at home a 1hr+ train ride south of London

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately if you've got 3G turned on then the handset will try and use it because technically it's supposed to be the best signal. Also, most of the time your handset will detect the signal and show full bars for example but then only realise it can't use it when you try and make a call etc and simply display 'call failed' and other similar errors 😞 because the handset can't actually tell that there is no 'space on the network' for it.
Imagine waiting for a train, it arrives and emm has no windows (stay with me on this one!) and you only realise you can't get on when the doors open and you see it's packed full. Journey failed - Please try again later. (Terrible analogy I know).

[Anonymous]

pretty good analogy I'd say
I'm a techie myself so I understand "bandwidth" ... or the lack of it available in this case.

I do indeed see full bars on 3.5g only to see "Network busy" when trying to make a call or use the web.
Text messages still sneek through but they are only a around a couple of hundred bytes.

I just checked and my Nokia 5800 can be switched into GSM mode (2G) only.
Settings->Network->Network mode.
Was on "Dual mode" but you can select UMTS (3G) or good old (it works) GSM mode only

I'll see how I get on with this for a few days, I'll just switch to 3G when I want web access.

[adamtemp64]

Perhaps we need o2 to make a sticky on this subject in all the relevant forums like the broadband sections do.

Saying that they know the issue and are working on it and this is the temporary work around.

I am not affected by this as I do not even have 3g within 7 miles of me in all directions lol.

But why have 3g switched on if all you are using it for is calls/txt on as o2 gsm network is normally fine and on most phones it is a few key presses to turn on/off and it will save battery life, and also if on wi-fi in office or home why have 3g on as well as your data will be through wi-fi.

When I do find 3g near me as it is rural it works as it should, as it is not over subscribed.

[Anonymous]

It is an awareness thing. Despite me being a techie I pick up a new phone thats 3G so I know I'm supposed to be good for web access and I use it. I don't expect to have to know about switching between different services etc.

The majority of people will just want pick up the phone and use it without knowing all this, that's how it should be.

Perhaps we should blame the phone designer, if the phone cannot get a 3G connection it should try again on 2G automatically?

[adamtemp64]

Adrian

I agree but at the present time in the affected areas (Mainly London) It would help raise awarness if a sticky was present until the capacity issue is solved.

Regarding the phone switching back to 2g well the problem is it sees a full signal but not the fact there is no capacity and I guess that would take a fair bit of coding to sort out an auto drop to 2g even at the mast level to prevent more joining the 3g site.

Adam