Despite the marketing slogan “We’re better connected” O2 has been hit by several disasters this year.
In May it was revealed that its Spanish parent company, Telefonica, had suffered a 33 per cent slump in operating profits for the first quarter of the year, related to the end of O2’s exclusive deal to sell iPhones.
In January the company was forced to apologise after customers’ numbers were accidentally disclosed online while they were using their phones to access the internet, and in June tens of thousands of people were unable to send or receive text messages for 24 hours.
Meanwhile some Twitter users managed to see the funny side of the chaos. One user, Gaz, tweeted: “What did one O2 customer say to the other? Nothing.”
Bill Ray, mobile correspondent for the online IT magazine The Register, said: “The problem about people threatening to swap networks is where are they going to go?
“All the major carriers have had crashes recently so you could change and then find yourself victim of another problem with a different network.”
Industry insiders said the real disaster for O2 would be if Tesco, whose mobiles currently operate under the mobile network, decided to switch to a different provider, taking away millions of pounds worth of business with its 3 million customers.
One customer affected by the problems, John Hawkins told the Standard: “I started noticing problems around 1.30pm when I was in Chislehurst when I tried to send a text.
“At first I thought it might just have been the area but when I came into London I could see I still wasn’t getting a signal and I noticed other people had the same problem.”
Actor Mr Hawkins, 26, from Hampshire, said he uses his iPhone 4S for his business stagestatus.co.uk and the problems meant he could not update the website.
He said: “I’m out a lot and a most of my connectivity is via social networks so it has been a problem as I rely heavily on my phone. I tried ringing up the customer service on a pay phone but I was put on hold and that never happens normally.”
Elsewhere Konst Konstantine, from Islington, said that while the service on his iPhone 4 was fine his wife Natalia Bakhlina’s iPhone 4S did not work.
The marketing manager said they noticed a problem while waiting for their plane to New York at Heathrow Terminal 5.
He said: “My wife went to get some food and left me with our five month old daughter Isabelle. She tried to ring to find out where I was and realised her phone didn’t work. And it still wasn’t working even though we were standing next to each other.”
A spokesman for Tesco said it was “a bit premature” for them to be looking at a potential switch.
Large numbers of online banking customers with Lloyds TSB and Halifax were left unable to log into their accounts because of a technical glitch.
Problems were first reported yesterday and continued into this morning. It comes just weeks after millions of NatWest customers struggled to use their accounts due to a computer break-down.
Online banking customers attempting to access Lloyds accounts were met with the message: “We’re sorry but internet banking is currently unavailable. Please try again later.” A similar admission on the website of Halifax, which like Lloyds TSB is owned by taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Unfortunately there has been a technical problem. This transaction has not been completed.”
Lloyds TSB is the official bank of the Olympics, whilst O2 is also providing mobile networking in the Olympic village.
