whos life collapsed cos O2 was out of order?

[andymc]

Wasn't great for me - calling and texting were almost completely unavailable, let alone having access to mobile data. I had an MOT yesterday and hadn't printed out a hard copy of the appointment letter (which you're supposed to bring with you) as for the last number of years I've been able to just show it to the tester on my phone screen - not this time however, which I only discovered after I'd pulled up in Lane 4. Fortunately, by the time of my appointment I was far from the first to present with that issue and they let me put the car through anyway.

After the test, I was supposed to meet a friend in crisis (who has recently escaped an abusive relationship) once she had finished with a counselling session, but we were unable to make contact in order to finalise our arrangements and she ended up having a panic attack in the street. Took a while to get her settled.

A few hours later, a colleague of my wife's had her car break down - I was at home by this stage and my wife had been able to get me on the landline to ask me to bring the towing bar out to her as she was "only a few miles away" from our house, albeit unsure of precisely where. Actually finding the girl was somewhat more difficult when I couldn't text or phone her to pinpoint her location and let her know I was on my way, and I'd say I drove five or six miles more than I should have had to before finally spotting her.
So yeah, thanks O2 ...

[mystabe]

Again with the 'life was better before' stuff :-( - which is fine and admittedly has certain amount of merit BUT you can't just turn modern life off without any notice as too many people rely on it. I had a complicated day yesterday and for 2 hours I didn't know where my 8 year old was and with who because I had no way of contacting anyone.


The business problems it caused I can live with but my son was much more of an issue. I have a paper AA map of Britain in my car and maps downloaded to my phone so getting around wasn't an issue (and really there is no excuse not to) but sometimes you are in bother if modern communications are just 'gone'.


It is actually quite scary to think what would happen if terrorist hackers disabled phone networks and big parts of the internet - but I bet they are thinking about it now.

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by mystabe

Again with the 'life was better before' stuff :-( - which is fine and admittedly has certain amount of merit BUT you can't just turn modern life off without any notice as too many people rely on it. I had a complicated day yesterday and for 2 hours I didn't know where my 8 year old was and with who because I had no way of contacting anyone.


The business problems it caused I can live with but my son was much more of an issue. I have a paper AA map of Britain in my car and maps downloaded to my phone so getting around wasn't an issue (and really there is no excuse not to) but sometimes you are in bother if modern communications are just 'gone'.


It is actually quite scary to think what would happen if terrorist hackers disabled phone networks and big parts of the internet - but I bet they are thinking about it now.

what did parents do about knowing where their children were before phones?
I perfectly understand that once you become reliant on them you worry more without them due to lack of contact.

macafee2

[Nick Greg]

Time to email the CEO of 02 methinks...

[grivas]

Originally Posted by macafee2

Did anyone's life collapse yesterday with the mobile phone network O2
being so badly effected?

I'm just waiting for the stories of people having to see their GP with stress due to no network or contacting the police some way to complain

I appreciate there is a serious side (medical and those in danger) but setting those aside life carried on and the world kept turning

macafee2

But did you see any neighbours swinging from the nearest tree?, that is the golden indicator, GP visits, aggressive and antisocial behaviour is normal!!. I myself was not affected, and would not allow such a catastrophic event to bother me at all. Society is going down the technological toilet what can you do.

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by andymc

Wasn't great for me - calling and texting were almost completely unavailable,

I was texting my other half most of the day. Texts were going through but showing as failed

[grivas]

Originally Posted by coolguy

Fortunately I can still read a map!

But can you use a log table or a slide rule to add/sub/mult/div?, that is the point,!!

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by grivas

But can you use a log table or a slide rule to add/sub/mult/div?, that is the point,!!

Dear God, I'd need a drill with a wire brush to get the rust off my memory to use a slide rule again.

[Reebs]

O2 have now said they will offer compensation for the outage

Pay Monthly customers will be credited with two days of monthly airtime subscription charges in January.

Pay As You Go customers will get 10% credit on a top-up and Pay As You Go mobile broadband users will get 10% off a Bolt On purchase, in the new year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46481797

[Nick Greg]

Don't spend it all at once