O2 says texts and data problems have now been fixed after more than 24 hour outage
O2 says it is business as usual after a 24 hour data black out followed by text problems this morning
O2 CUSTOMERS were furious after being unable to send texts this morning following a major data outage - but O2 says the problem has now been resolved.
In a statement made at 3.30am, O2 said its 4G network was back up and running after its 3G network came online last night.
It follows a 24 hour service outage that left millions of O2 customers across the UK fuming.
"We can now report that our 4G network has been restored," a spokesperson said.
"Our technical teams will continue to monitor service performance closely over the next few days to ensure we remain stable.
"A review will be carried out with Ericsson to understand fully what happened.
"We'd like to thank our customers for their patience during the loss of service on Thursday December 6 and we're sorry for any impact the issue may have caused."
But this morning, the provider admitted that a "small proportion" of customers were reporting problems sending text messages.
As of this afternoon, it says this issue is resolved and the complaints on social media seem to have dried out.
One O2 customer wrote on Twitter this morning: "Still getting a failed message every time I try and send a text."
Another Twitter user called Mark, a customer of GiffGiff which piggyback's on O2's network, said: "Still having issues with the network, I'm on GiffGaff network which uses O2 and I'm having probs sending text messages.
"My phone just keeps failed to send every time I send an SMS. Calls have interference, data is ok."
Another GiffGaff user called Anne wrote: "After the situation yesterday when the data went down, I cannot send texts normally.
"It says 'not delivered' on my phone - but to the recipient, it spams them with the same text I sent. I have an iPhone 6s and I have the £20 plan. Please help - thank you!"
Tesco Mobile customers reported similar problems. One user wrote: "Still unable to send text or make phone calls. When will that be resolved???"
Another said: "My texts are being sent multiple times and are coming out of my allowance. When will text messages be sorted? Will Tesco customers get the same compensation as O2 customers?"
Someonelse wrote: "So apparently @o2 services have been restored. U ok hun?
"Because I don’t have mine back I’ve reset my phone so many times since the news came out that it’s been restored and still no 4g😡 #IWantMyData"
Meanwhile, another user said: "@O2 signal and data back but still no 4G in Antrim?
"Is this to be expected? Status checker says I should be 100%"
The Sun has contacted O2 which says the network is back up and running, but advises customers who are still experiencing issues to restart their phones.
Millions of furious O2 customers endured a day without data yesterday after the network crashed leaving some unable to work and others fearing for the safety of their loved ones.
O2, Britain's second largest mobile company, said 3G was restored on mobile devices by 9.30pm on Thursday - but the network nightmare continued to affect 4G as bosses promised to fix the faults by this morning.
Outraged customers of O2, which has a total of 32million users, took to social media to flag problems with 4G, data services and phone calls.
The network issues started about 5.30am yesterday with around 1,662 complaints made before 7am, and customers across Manchester, London and Southampton all reporting outages.
But the issues also spread beyond England to Scotland and Northern Ireland, as a heat map of problems by website Down Detector shows.
Company bosses had earlier apologised for the outage and promised services would be up and running by the morning.
The network, which is also used by customers with Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile, has blamed the issue on faulty software provided by third party supplier Ericsson.
The Swedish company has issued a statement saying it believes the issue was caused because by "an expired certificate in the software" installed with O2.
Telefonica CEO Mark Evans said: "I want to let our customers know how sorry I am for the impact our network data issue has had on them."
The mobile company was forced to advise customers "to use wifi wherever they can" until services were fully restored.
Marielle Lindgren, UK and Ireland Ericsson CEO, said: "The cause of the 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.
"The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned. Ericsson sincerely apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused."
How to get compensation
IF you feel the outage caused you significant problems or you waited a long time for repairs to take place, you may be entitled to compensation.
To complain, you need to .
If your problem is still unresolved after eight weeks you can submit your complaint to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.
Telecoms regulator Ofcom has approved two ADR schemes - CISAS and Ombudsman Services: Communications. O2 is a member of the .
O2 has told The Sun it is "reviewing" how it can "make it up to our customers".
Both O2 and Sky Mobile have announced redress packages for customers but GiffGaff, Lycamobile and Tesco Mobile are yet to announce their plans.
As well as customers with O2, Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile, the outage has also affected systems relying on the same network such as the electronic timetables for London's buses and Boris Bikes due to their O2 sim connections.
The system fault brought particular stress and difficulty for Jennie O'Grady yesterday as she used O2 data to monitor her type-1 diabetic daughter's blood sugar levels.
She told the Daily Mail: "We rely massively on her having internet access. She can be sleeping in her bedroom and it is sending me her blood sugar levels.
"I would get an alarm to say she is having a hypoglycaemic attack if her blood sugar levels dropped below four, which would mean she need treatment immediately and could go into a coma.
"Without it I have been completely clueless and I have not been able to check on her."
How can you claim money back after the 24 hour O2 network outage
GiffGaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile, Lycamobile all "piggyback" on O2's network, meaning the O2 outage has affected their customers too.
Piggybacking is really common among mobile networks in the UK.
In fact, there are only four UK mobile networks - EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone - and all the other providers piggyback - ie, buy space from - one of these networks.
Tesco, GiffGaff, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile are on O2, Asda is on EE and TalkMobile is on Vodafone.
When it comes to whether customers will be offered compensation, O2 says it will give customers TWO days free as compensation for 4G data problems - here's what you need to know.
Sky Mobile has already confirmed that customers will get free unlimited data tomorrow.
And - it will email all customers in the coming days.
Lycamobile, and Tesco Mobile are yet to confirm if they'll offer affected customers compensation.
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It's not the first time O2's network has experienced issues.
In October, the mobile network was down leaving thousands of customers unable to make or receive calls.
It also happened in September, as both Sky and O2 mobile networks were down due to Storm Ali.
Meanwhile, EE and Vodafone are being investigated by the watchdog over claims that they gave false information about network coverage in rural areas.
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