O2 confirmed data services are back to normal after a day of outages caused by a software issue identified by Swedish equipment manufacturer Ericsson.
Services were reported down on social media since 5:30am yesterday (Dec 6), causing outrage among customers.
The operator will compensate pay monthly, small-medium business and mobile broadband customers by paying back two days of monthly subscription charges by the end of January.
Pay as you go customers will receive 10pc extra credit when topping up. Pay as you go mobile broadband customers will see a 10pc discount on a bolt on purchase.
Millions of customers were affected yesterday, O2 has 25 million customers and a further seven million connect to the O2 network through MVNOs such as Sky, Tesco, and Giffgaff.
Ericsson said it has decommissioned the faulty software in the equipment causing the outage that also affected other operators globally.
According to mobile analytics company OpenSignal the 4G outage was seen in Mobifone in Vietnam and Softbank in Japan. OpenSignal CEO Brendan Gill said: “Notably, smartphone users’ experience recovered much more quickly on Softbank and Mobifone, than for O2 UK users”
Twitter user Kelly Pyrat said: “One job, O2 one job! Can’t even send text messages let alone mobile data. I need my phone for my job. Hope you’ll compensate customers! #o2down #o2 #onejob #frustrated.
Another added: “O2 are down so I’ve no clue if my daughter got to school safely. I had no idea that O2 served Tesco, SKY, GiffGaff. The website lies that voicemails are working but they have been down since yesterday. Don’t gaslight customers!!”
An O2 spokesperson said: “We can now report that our 4G network has been restored. Our technical teams will continue to monitor service performance closely over the next few days to ensure we remain stable. A review will be carried out with Ericsson to understand fully what happened.
Ericsson president and CEO Börje Ekholm added: “The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned and we apologise not only to our customers but also to their customers.”