O2 and Ericsson issue joint apology after network outage
Mobile network O2 and telecoms company Ericsson have issued a joint apology after millions of customers were unable to get online.
O2 UK CEO Mark Evans said the company would be working with systems and equipment provider Ericsson “through the night”, and that a full service should be restored by Friday morning.
British customers reported not being able to use mobile data to access the internet and the operator’s network on Thursday – which was the result of a technical fault.
Mr Evans said in a statement: “I want to let our customers know how sorry I am for the impact our network data issue has had on them, and reassure them that our teams, together with Ericsson, are doing everything we can.
“We will continue to work with Ericsson, through the night, who have assured us that a full service will be restored for customers by the morning.
Update: Our network teams continue to make this a top priority and we are slowly beginning to restore our services which will continue throughout tonight. Here's our latest position with a joint statement from our and Ericsson UK & Ireland's CEO >https://t.co/5oS7qap2bj
— O2 in the UK (@O2) December 6, 2018
“We fully appreciate it’s been a poor experience and we are really sorry.”
O2, which has more than 25 million UK customers, saw disruption to its 4G network begin at around 5am and last for most of Thursday.
Other mobile networks, including Sky, Tesco and Giffgaff have also been affected by the problem because their networks use O2 services.
The CEO of Ericsson UK and Ireland, Marielle Lindgren, said: “The cause of today’s network issue is in certain nodes in the core network resulting in network disturbances for a limited number of customers across the world, including in the UK.
“We have been working hard on resolving the UK data issue since early this morning. The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned.
“Our priority is to restore full data services on the network by tomorrow morning. Ericsson sincerely apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused.”
