O2 4G back online: Data network restored after millions hit by day-long outage

Millions of mobile users spent Thursday without internet coverage after technical problems

Mobile network O2 says its data services have been restored after a technical fault left millions of customers unable to access the internet for the best part of a day.

The company said it would be closely monitoring its network to prevent further blackouts and was carrying out a review into what caused a “technical glitch” that prevented millions getting online.

Most of O2’s 25 million UK customers began to see disruption to data services from around 5am on Thursday.

A further seven million users of other smaller mobile networks including Giffgaff, Sky and Tesco, which provide coverage using O2’s services, also saw disruption.

The firm said its mobile data coverage had begun to return from around 9.30pm and reported by 3.30am on Friday the 4G network had been entirely restored.

“Our technical teams will continue to monitor service performance closely over the next few days to ensure we remain stable,” an O2 spokesman said.

“A review will be carried out with Ericsson to understand fully what happened.

“We’d like to thank our customers for their patience during the loss of service on Thursday 6 December and we’re sorry for any impact the issue may have caused.”

The company had earlier issued a joint apology with telecoms company Ericsson, which provides O2’s mobile network equipment.

“The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned,” Marielle Lindgren, chief executive of Ericsson UK and Ireland, added.

“Ericsson sincerely apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused.”

Additional reporting by PA