From lunchtime yesterday, many O2 users may have noticed a loss of service. O2 has confirmed that the issue is in relation to one of its core networking systems, causing users to be unable to register to the network, thus preventing them from placing calls, making texts or accessing their mobile internet.
From what we gather, as the day progressed, the issue gradually become worse, perhaps as a side-effect of local caching between cell towers. O2 and its central supplier have apparently committed as many resources as possible to rectify the issue, with engineers working through the night, however, as of this post going live, the service still remains intermittent at best.
We do wonder, however, if perhaps this downtime has any relation to the recent announcement that the firm would be combining core infrastructures with Vodafone? Perhaps something went wrong during a service move, increasing the paranoia a little, perhaps the firm realised downtime was an unavoidable step in the integration and is masking the issue as a fault. We wouldn't dare suggest that when integrating with Vodafone's servers, the firm deliberately sabotaged the move, knowing of the effects it would cause...
For O2 customers looking for an update on their service, you can head to the following link for the O2 status page: http://status.o2.co.uk/
EDIT: Apparently O2 has 200 engineers deployed on the issue. The firm has confirmed that 2G services are up and running again and that 3G should follow throughout the day, recommending people turn their phones off, then on (we suggest flight mode toggle for less hassle).
