O2 loses it in Liphook
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
Residents of Liphook in Hampshire got in touch with Watchdog after the mobile phone signal in the village mysteriously vanished.
Customers with 02, the UK's biggest mobile provider, couldn't get a reliable signal there. In fact, sometimes there was no signal at all.
In the local pub, The Royal Anchor, there was much talk of the missing signal as barmaid Hannah Bowley told us. "Everyone knows everyone in Liphook and no one can contact their friends - it's ridiculous."
Student Hannah pays £30 a month for her 02 contract and found herself leaving the village just to make a call. "You can drive five miles out the village and get a perfect signal, but as soon as you come into the village, nothing," she explained.
No signal for over a month
Village resident, Jane Wright has also had problems. She says in the past her signal has always been very good. So after a month of problems, she was keen to get to the bottom of the issue. She says 02 weren't helpful.
"When you can finally get through to them, half the time it's, "we haven't heard there's a problem" Jane explained.
Jane was told the signal would be fixed. It did come back on for a few days but then went again. She was given another date by 02 but they said they couldn't guarantee it would be fixed.
Watchdog took mobile communications expert John Raw to the village to investigate. John tracked down the 02 mast to a local military training area where it seemed like there was an intermittent problem with the tower. John says these problems are usually fixed within 24 hours.
The day Watchdog went to the mast, an engineer turned up to fix it.
While we were on the site, an engineer turned up to fix the problem. He said the problem had been fixed but when Watchdog went back to the village to spread the good news some residents still had no signal.
Later that day the signal was fully restored.
O2 response
...we are aware of a problem in the last four weeks which led to a loss of coverage in the village of Liphook, Hampshire. Service is now fully restored.
Our network management centre first noticed a problem at the beginning of September, and we have received 19 customer complaints about it."We arranged access on 9 September and the site was fully restored to service. Regrettably, it failed again a few hours after the engineer left. We arranged for another visit, which took place on 21 September when the site was again restored to service, at a reduced capacity.
"The site is now fully operational as of Friday afternoon 2 October. We do always try to fix a site in one visit, but with complicated faults and difficult access, sometimes this is just not possible. We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused by this outage. "
"The mast is located at Woolmer Forest, located on Longmore Training Area (MOD), Hampshire and provides O2 network coverage to the village of Liphook.
"We are keen to encourage customers who have been affected by the loss of service in Liphook to call our Customer Services team and we will discuss and review their bill with them.
"We would like to sincerely apologise to all our customers who have been affected by the problems with this mast and would like to assure them that service is now fully restored."
"The mast is on a military base and permission is required before we can gain access (as your own team will have found out on Friday afternoon). The landowner requires 10 days' notice.
"On Friday we had permission to gain access to the site and restored full service by late afternoon."
"We first arranged access on 9 September to restore service. Unfortunately, service failed a few hours later. We were required to reapply for site access, which took place on 21 September, where service was restored at a reduced capacity.
"The site is now fully operational as of Friday afternoon 2 October.
"We do always try to fix a site in one visit, but with complicated faults and difficult access, sometimes this is not possible.
"We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused by this outage."
7) Can you confirm when O2 customers in the GU30 area will have a fully working mobile service?
"Now. Since late afternoon, Friday 2 October. Our engineer remained on site after service was restored, to ensure that there are no unforeseen problems.
"The O2 network is constantly monitored 24 hours a day by our Network Management Centre. We will be fully investigating this matter and ensuring that such problems do not arise again. Once again, we apologise to our customers in the village of Liphook and thank them for bringing this to our attention."
Comment number 1.
At 20:25 8th Oct 2009, mysteriousmiekemoo wrote:I live in Southwell Nottinghamshire and also can no longer get a signal at my home or in a four mile radius around it ....
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 20:26 8th Oct 2009, Richardinswiss wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 20:27 8th Oct 2009, GAKent wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 20:28 8th Oct 2009, suecindy53 wrote:I have just watched your programme but the exact same thing is happening with my phone, and two others in my house and we are with [network removed], and we have been complaining and going to the stores and constantly ring up, but still no joy.
Sue
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 20:31 8th Oct 2009, poshloopy1 wrote:we in ottery st mary devon quite often go a few hours without signal or have limited signal.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 20:32 8th Oct 2009, staceyturnbull wrote:It is not only Liphook that has this problem, we have this problem on Elvetham Heath, in Fleet the signal is fine outside the Heath but on the Heath I get no signal and haven't since the beginning of the year??
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 20:33 8th Oct 2009, weekspl wrote:I live down the road from Liphook. I am a business customer with [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]and there coverage map says im in a 3G area. But where ever I put my phone in my house I have no signal. Unless I go outside I get a 1 bar but poor signal. I have spoke to Vodafone and they said "there is nothing they could do about it."
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 20:34 8th Oct 2009, jandanlins wrote:I live in Romford Essex and can hardly get a signal. O2 say it's my hand set an Apple iPhone- Apple say its my phone network provider.
Practiacally every call is a droppedcall i.e cuts off mid call and O2 do NOT want to know I can only hope that I can eventually switch to Vodafone or Orange and get a better service.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 20:37 8th Oct 2009, rikab13 wrote:I live in a very populated town Clydebank near Glasgow on a A Road and I get no signal indoors I have to hang out a window to make a call etc.... very frustrating!!!!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 20:42 8th Oct 2009, BigT69296 wrote:I live in Newcastle upon Tyne and my mum is an [details removed by moderator]customer and has had no signal since August
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 20:45 8th Oct 2009, lisaferry wrote:I live in Broadstairs, Kent and have had the same problem since August 2009
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 20:52 8th Oct 2009, liamohare wrote:I understand that this must be/ have been a really frustrating situation for these customers (I'd have gone mad) but it's good to remember that people did manage to survive for a great number of years without mobile phones at all.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)
Comment number 13.
At 21:11 8th Oct 2009, piglett595 wrote:I think if they look back in their history they will find this has happened with 02 before. If memory serves me right sometime around 2000 or perhaps slightly before Lisburn in Ireland was unable to get a signal for several months before they got the cell site back up and running.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 13)
Comment number 14.
At 21:17 8th Oct 2009, andys0000 wrote:hi when the engineer turned up to fix it
you need to turn off your phone and then turn on agane
i been with o2 of years and NOT
Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)
Comment number 15.
At 00:17 9th Oct 2009, senegambrit wrote:I live in London SE18 and have the same problem. I have spoken to my neighbours and they also have to go to their gardens or hang out of windows to make calls. I have been complaining to O2 for a WHOLE YEAR now and nothing has been done about it, perhaps its because I am the only one complaining. So if there are others in the Woolwich, Plumstead, Thamesmead area having the same problem, we should do like Liphook and band together to get O2 to do something about the lack of network!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)
Comment number 16.
At 07:49 9th Oct 2009, sleza69 wrote:i live in a village and i am livid that we get no signal for 02. when we moved here 3 years ago we didnt realise there would be no signal, the day you move in you are sposed to phone electric company with readings, and the home phone wasnt ready to make a call, we had to interrupt neighbours to use their phone!!!! we have called 02 but didnt get any reply to emails. not a happy 02 customer.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 16)
Comment number 17.
At 08:24 9th Oct 2009, sleepingSusanMc wrote:I was really interested to find out what the problem was in Liphook as I too have been in contact with O2 regarding my signal. I stay in Uddingston in Scotland and cannot get a signal inside my house at all, my phone goes into emergency calls only. Its also a hit or a miss if I go out into the front or back garden and can be very intermittant at times in other places - its is extremely frustrating!!!
Interestingly, I have been on holiday in Mexico and Greece where the signal is crystal clear......
I used to have an O2 pay as you go phone and it was great. The problems with the signal started last year when I moved to a contact phone (not sure if this has anything to do with it)
Have spoken to O2 Customer Services who have not been that helpful. I pay £20 a month and dont get anything for that. I consider myself a valued customer as I have always been with O2, however Im not getting the service for the money I am paying and Im not a happy bunny!!!!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 17)
Comment number 18.
At 09:11 9th Oct 2009, ellelaw wrote:i am wednesbury west mids and cant get a signal at home or the surrounding. I have had no problems at all until the past few weeks and my phone works everywhere else. contacted customer services who said its my phone thats the problem. I get the feeling they are fobbing me off.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 18)
Comment number 19.
At 18:59 9th Oct 2009, byerbware wrote:Did Watchdog ask O2 whether the problem was indeed specific to hardware or software at the site, or was it rather a problem with either network wide software, or a problem with agreements with other mobile operators.
Mobile operators have agreements which allow them to use each others network without premium to their customers. If there was a dispute, or if the agreements between O2 and one of the other providers such as Hutchinson(3) or Vodafone are undergoing negotiations, then service is likely affected.
In the programme, a map was shown where other providers have masts closer to the customer base affected. If an O2 contract with one or more of the mast owners/operators was affected, then O2 customers could loose the right to use one of the other providers networks as a home network.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 19)
Comment number 20.
At 16:22 11th Oct 2009, PaxLIV wrote:Hi, We have just holydayed in Herefordshire, Apart from within 7 miles of Hereford nowhere near Peterchurchin the Golden valley and on towards Hay on Wye and north of the Golden Valley towards Kington and Knighton could we get [a signal]. Vodaphone and Orange did have a service in Peterchurch. OK not every company can build masts everywhere but why is it that when abroad we can get the local mobile provider to link our phones back to the UK, but here in the UK if your mobile phone company can't give you a service why oh why can't they buy incoming calls from another provider just as they would do from aboad. IE In Peterchurch we could have used [one provider] and [our provider] would have been relayed the call at slightly an increased cost to the us the user exactly the same as if we were in Spain and Telstar was the local provider?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 20)
Comment number 21.
At 14:17 13th Oct 2009, scorpiolordfury wrote:I am in selsey, sussex. we lost [our]signal in january and after phoning [company removed] and going into there shop in chichester many times, have been told repeatedly that there is no problem. i have been with [them] for eight years or so, but sadly will have to change, pity because i have been very happy up till know.If we all change then perhaps they will take notice.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 21)
Comment number 22.
At 18:32 13th Oct 2009, andreawatt wrote:I live in South Lanarkshire and I can no longer get a reception and it has been so for the last 3 months
Complain about this comment (Comment number 22)