o2 broadand awful during peak times

KStaford

Ive been using o2 bb since August 2007. In the past couple of months, it is getting really bad during peak times. From teatime onwards and on weekends it often grinds to a halt and sometimes drops altogether. If I try it after midnight it performs well (the same as it used to when I first starte dusing it).

I complained to o2, then complained to comreg. Tony O'Brien at comreg took on the case and wrote to o2 on my behalf. After three weeks of sending then emails describing the performance at various times during the day, they have come back and said "sorry but there's not much we can do, its down to you not living near enough to a mast"

In the real world, the problem is that they have oversold and subscribed the network. I'm left paying 40 quid a month for something that I can only effectively use in the middle of the night.

Walkman

Same as Vodafone and 3 then?
Do any of the networks offer a credible Broadband service??

Dean820

Yeah, sounds exactly like my 3 problems.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to create a 02 Broadband problems topic for 02 users on the boards like we did for 3's problems.

Onikage

If you read back through watty's criticisms of HSDPA you'll get a good idea of why none of the networks can provide a "credible" service. Personally, I think it's great for what it is. If you expect an equivalent service to adsl, you are heading for disappointment.

Sponge Bob

Dunno if its awful everywhere but where there is no alternative its probably awful . It only takes 20 to max a sector.

It takes about 60 users to max a typical 3 sector mast . Then there is no more capacity .
O2 is much better than 3 , get real people. !!!

KStaford

Have you heard o2's add on the radio. "o2 bb is about being online all the time" and other great sound bites.

The best speed I get here is 500kbps. I used to be happy with that. But in the last few months using the web has become impossible unless you wait until after midnight.

literally .....
open web browser
connecting to google.ie
transfering data from google.ie
connection has timed out
hit f5 and repeat

That's what its like all night. It has taken this page on boards.ie about 90 seconds to load (sunday 20:00). Their bb service has been oversold, its very clear.

So I am real, very real, I am a computing person who needs a decent connection. Where I live there is no alternative. So now I am paying o2 40 quid a month for a connection that is literally worse than dialup unless I want to use it after 1am.

get real eh ???

Sponge Bob

why not write to that nice minister Ryan who will help you <not>

why not write to his boss John Gormley to tell him to find some green who can do the job ??

Canonfan

I think a lot of people are signing up O2's 30-day money back offer.

jor el

Walkman wrote: »

Do any of the networks offer a credible Broadband service??

3G internet access isn't, and will never be, a credible alternative to proper broadband. Unfortunately, there is no alternative for many people in Ireland.

Only two weeks ago, we had the minister for communications, Toolie McToolerson I think, on The Last Word and he was proclaiming a great victory for Ireland since we had the highest take up of 3G broadband of any country in the world. It seems to have escaped him that the reason it's so high is that there is nothing else for far too many people.

If given the choice between cable, decent wireless, DSL or 3G, nobody in their right mind would pick 3G. The only thing 3G does bring to the table is mobility. If you need your Internet access on the move, then it's great. But it's not real broadband.

With such a large uptake in 3G, things are only going to get worse for those who have no alternatives. As mentioned, 20 people is enough to max out a cell. Nothing can be done about this, as that's how the technology works. Anyone suffering from these problems should contact their local TDs, Minister McToolerson, Minister Gormless and anyone else in power and tell them that they need to do something about the lack of proper, decent, broadband in your area.

Walkman

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Dunno if its awful everywhere but where there is no alternative its probably awful . It only takes 20 to max a sector.

It takes about 60 users to max a typical 3 sector mast . Then there is no more capacity .
O2 is much better than 3 , get real people. !!!

Sponge Bob I'm confused by your post!!
"It takes 20 to max a sector" but "30 to max a 3 sector" then "O2 is much better than 3"
Why is O2 better than 3 (and now vodafone who are seemingly getting the same speeds as 3) if the speeds on O2 are going down also??
Please explain...
Or is it just an anti-3 statement!!!

Onikage

Walkman wrote: »

Sponge Bob I'm confused by your post!!
"It takes 20 to max a sector" but "30 to max a 3 sector" then "O2 is much better than 3"
Why is O2 better than 3 (and now vodafone who are seemingly getting the same speeds as 3) if the speeds on O2 are going down also??
Please explain...
Or is it just an anti-3 statement!!!

Each radio tower can have multiple sectors, each sector can support 20 clients. Therefore three sectors can support 60 clients.

O2 provide better customer service, issue real IP addresses and are more relaxed about going over cap.

sudzs

Last night 8 - 10pm, all I was gettiing was between 52 - 200 kbps. Next to useless.

Mint Sauce

any O2 users in sligo area, was getting next to nothing last night between about 5pm and 10pm, it was either an absolute crawl, or hanged totally, spoke to O2 who knew of nothing in the area, but escalated to the engineers to see what the mast activity was when i was trying to connect, anyone else have any issues last night

:mad:

KStaford

yea I'm in south county sligo and that is my experience every evening. as soon as ppl get home from work etc and start using the net, it goes out the window. thus the title of this post "o2 broadband awful during peak times".

im glad you complaines to them, keep that up, its very important

Mint Sauce

KStaford wrote: »

yea I'm in south county sligo and that is my experience every evening. as soon as ppl get home from work etc and start using the net, it goes out the window. thus the title of this post "o2 broadband awful during peak times".

im glad you complaines to them, keep that up, its very important

although never seen as bad last night, rang them again this evening, questioned if if could a due to contention issues, thier going to get their engineers to monitor it again this evening, reakon if not a a coverage thing in my area, it could be the firmware

KStaford

irish-stew wrote: »

although never seen as bad last night, rang them again this evening, questioned if if could a due to contention issues, thier going to get their engineers to monitor it again this evening, reakon if not a a coverage thing in my area, it could be the firmware

they'll bull**** ya, thats what they did to me.
try your connection offpeak, at 1am or before you go to work in the mornings. I bet it works great then which is of course useless to you.

jor el

How is it for you tonight? I guess the speeds depend on your location, but I'm getting 1200kbps down and 330kbps up tonight, in Limerick. I don't normally use it in the evenings as I have DSL too so I don't know if this is typical or not.

Control panel shows full strength UMTS too.

Our man in Havana

KStaford wrote: »

they'll bull**** ya, thats what they did to me.
try your connection offpeak, at 1am or before you go to work in the mornings. I bet it works great then which is of course useless to you.

They certainly know how to bull****. I reckon they are taking lessons from 3 support in Mumbai.
I have rang them up about it and all they do is say "yep, I understand, yep" this went on for 10 mins the other day. Sounded like they had heard it all before and the rep was so bored she was eating her lunch at the same time. They say it is a firmware issue. I wrangled a free month out of them.

I have noticed the stronger the UMTS signal the worse it is. I get the best connections on 1 bar.

I think it is suffering the same issues as 3 and Vodafone. O2 won't admit the service is collapsing around their ears.

smellslikeshoes

Bond-007 wrote: »

They certainly know how to bull****. I reckon they are taking lessons from 3 support in Mumbai.
I have rang them up about it and all they do is say "yep, I understand, yep" this went on for 10 mins the other day. Sounded like they had heard it all before and the rep was so bored she was eating her lunch at the same time. They say it is a firmware issue. I wrangled a free month out of them.

I have noticed the stronger the UMTS signal the worse it is. I get the best connections on 1 bar.

I think it is suffering the same issues as 3 and Vodafone. O2 won't admit the service is collapsing around their ears.

I think the problem here is not the service collapsing but over zealous advertising skewing peoples expectations of 3G broadband. This is what 3G broadband is and even if some providers are better than others they are all rubbish. 3G is for mobility and not ment as a replacement for home broadband, the technology just isn't capable of what most people want it to be.
Its being sold here as broadband when it should really be sold as mobile internet.

Mint Sauce

wasn't to bad thurs evening, but then i was connected to the network all day, came in from work yesterday evening, treid connecting, wasn't great, but no way near as bad as tuesday

Moriarty

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

I think the problem here is not the service collapsing but over zealous advertising skewing peoples expectations of 3G broadband. This is what 3G broadband is and even if some providers are better than others they are all rubbish. 3G is for mobility and not ment as a replacement for home broadband, the technology just isn't capable of what most people want it to be.
Its being sold here as broadband when it should really be sold as mobile internet.

What he said ^. You'll notice contention far more with a 3G service than you would with a fixed broadband connection because the technology is designed for only a handful of clients to be using their connection at any point in time. Combine that with the mobile nature of the service and you have varying amounts of clients fighting over the same very sparse local resources.

tazb

ok so i was thinking of getting o2 broadband but having second thoughts now. Anyone any experience of o2 broadband in carlow town.

Drakar

30 day trial. Bring it back during the 30 days and you pay nothing (vodafone also have a 14 day trial, so give them a go too).