Orange blames switch for data problems
Call centres thanked for dealing with angry users 'per the standard process'
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Orange said today a switch problem was to blame for 3g outages in recent weeks, which seem to be concentrated in London.
We've received several emails from irritated Orange customers. We were also sent updated advice from the telco to staff working in Orange call centres who are dealing with the problems.
The mail said:
We’ve had a challenging few weeks with some customers not being able to access their mobile data services such as MMS, internet or emails. Working closely with our technical teams, we have introduced several solutions to reduce this issue and are currently developing a permanent fix.We know how tough it is when dealing with more calls than usual from frustrated customers and would like to thank you for your support during this difficult period. We are keeping a very close eye on our services and would like to assure you we are doing everything we can to ensure our network stability is fully restored.
If you have any queries from customers regarding their mobile data services please apologise for the inconvenience caused and deal with the queries as per the standard process.
Orange has been busy sorting out its tie-up with T-Mobile's network, but the French-owned firm denied this played any part in the current problems.
A spokeswoman for L'Orange said:
We can confirm that earlier this month some Orange customers experienced temporary and intermittent issues with mobile data services due to a technical fault at one of our major switch sites. Orange is committed to delivering the best customer service and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers.This was not a result of the network share between Orange and T-Mobile. Following the merger between Orange and T-Mobile, we are continuing to invest in and improve our network every day to provide customers with the best possible service as part of the biggest and best mobile network. We are always looking at opportunities to update sites and to ensure that all of our customers can receive high quality 3G network coverage across the UK.
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COMMENTS
Thankyou for following the standard procedure.
...ahhh.
be obstrucive, dismissive, patronising and unhelpful.
@tangerine
"As usual, it's the people who abuse the service who push up costs and push down quality for the rest of us."
No. Absolutely not.
It's the phone networks selling services they can't provide. Simple as.
Backhaul not Signal Coverage
The problem is mostly with the lack of backhaul bandwidth from the cell towers, why do you think that O2 is trying to move some of its traffic onto Wi-Fi? All the operators suffer with this. I'm on Orange and get good signal coverage pretty much everywhere. Throughputs, however, vary dramatically and of course are consistently poor where a lot of other users are trying to connect (like anywhere inside the M25!). On the other hand I recently had an off season holiday in Cornwall, near St Ives, and despite only getting a weak 3G signal the throughput was excellent with web pages loading quickly and HD iPlayer content downloading overnight with no problems. The reason is simple, I was probably the only user on that data bearer at the time. All the operators need to invest in backhaul otherwise mobile data services become a bad joke.
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