yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Touch Cruise General] fantasist:
the specific 0870s are free.

here is a list of free o2 numbers

http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs/freenumbers

and it also says "Free of Charge calls will have a zero charge applied and won’t diminish your bundle allowance on Pay Monthly plans"
[Touch Cruise General] marisa4755:
The funniest thing I've read for ages

Following on the article describing the segemented supply of HSDPA bandwidth as above, apparently the O2 PR department accidentally diallied a reporter at the Register while still discussing what to say:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/o2_accidental_call/

Read the article, and the comments, it's just so funny. (and sad!).

This is what the company I pay my £35 a month to thinks of me. Talk about PR disaster!
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
Sorry but this is a joke!!! Been onto CS 3 times myself - they haven;t been told a thing, techincal support don't know a thing. Has anyone got a number for data support?
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
I've tried the press office twice now, they've said they'll pass my details along to the correct person but so far no one has phoned me back.

Apparently the person dealing with this for the press office is called Ellie Stone.

I've phoned CS on several occasions and they don't even know there's been a press release and won't acknowledge any of this is true or even possible to be fixed.

Numpties the lot of them.

We should threaten a class action suit for misrepresentation, what is the point of advertising HSDPA compatible phones and advertising you have an HSDPA network if users can't use it?! Ridiculous
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
I've just spoken to the lady responsible for the accidental call to Bill Ray, she is mortified to have made such a mistake. She apologised if I was offended and was very clear she wasn't talking about Register readers or O2 customers.

It was intended to be a private conversation, Bill didn't give opportunity for comment, hanging up and just posting the story. Luckily this lady has not lost her job over the incident and how ever much anyone is offended by her comments I'm sure we can all accept that at times we say things in private to colleagues that we would not want publicised.

Hopefully the speed issue will be resolved soon.
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
I'm assuming that must have been Emma at the press office? And to think I was going to buy her some flowers for her courteous handling of us "techie nerds".

Well, Emma, you've stuffed it now. ;) No flowers for you m'dear.

EDIT: which is just as well seeing as none of the techie nerds here donated a penny. Shame on you, but how very fortunate at the same time ;)
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
Is that for you or for everyone???
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
I think they are going to resolve it for everyone but if it's important to you, you should call the press office and ask them to resolve it for you.
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Not sure if it was Emma, I didn't catch her name at the start of the conversation.
[Touch Cruise General] fantasist:
Email from o2

Got an email from o2 CS a few days ago after my HSDPA speed was increased by data support.

Hello XX,

Thank you for emailing us about using HSDPA.

This service hasn't been fully launched with O2 yet. This is why you aren't able to use it.

However, we are full launched HSDPA on 18 April 2008.

If you should have any further questions, please visit our online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

Kind Regards

Emma

Ecare Team Glasgow

O2 Customer Service

Is this the same Emma your all talking about?
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
I don't think it's the same person, one is customer services and the other is PR.
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
I just had an email from another PR person at O2:

I assumed that you lot won't mind and told her to go ahead.

I'm interested to see if they mention this 18th april HSDPA launch date that has suddenly appeared and try to apply it retrospectively to their "HSDPA for super fast browsing" adverts.

We can only wait and see I suppose.

So - if you're still reading Sarah - go ahead and post.
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Interesting...
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
Just a little update:

hope this means they've got a proper policy and upgrade procedure in place.

grrr. I hate waiting. ;)
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Where's that quote from? An Email?
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
Yes - another email from the same person.
[Touch Cruise General] O2UK:
from O2 press office

Hello. O2 press office here. Thanks for the opportunity to say something. As you know, we've been looking after customers on a case by case basis, but I'm pleased to tell you that this data speeds issue is all sorted now. Can I explain?

The vast majority of our 3G customers are able to access the internet on their mobile device at speeds of up to 384 KBps or typically up to 1.3 MBps if they have an HSDPA-enabled device. The O2 network is fully HSDPA-enabled and we will be further increasing the maximum speeds available on HSDPA throughout the year, up to 7.2 MBps.

Because of a provisioning error which came to our attention last week- thanks to this forum - a small proportion of our 3G customers have not been getting these higher speeds.

We apologise to those customers who were affected. The issue is simple to fix and we will be doing so this week. If you still have problems after that, all customer services representatives are now fully briefed on what to do if you call O2 in the normal way.

We would like to answer any questions you have on this matter. O2 UK's Head of Technology Engineering has offered to field your questions tomorrow. If you would like to post questions and comments tonight and tomorrow morning I will gather them all together, get him to answer them and then post the answers tomorrow afternoon. Does that work for you?

many thanks

O2 press office
[Touch Cruise General] mrvanx:
This is a credible post, the admin is aware of it and gave it the OK.
[Touch Cruise General] marisa4755:
Well, something has certainly happened as before tonight the fastest I have had is 130 ish kbs and now it's 693kbit/sec! Thank goodness, it was getting embarassing, especially at work with other people downloading the same attachment 10 time quicker than I could! Let's hope this keeps up.
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Result, I today saw speeds of around 800k/sec. :)
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
- By "vast majority", do you mean only business/corporate customers, or including residential customers? If you really mean ALL, then why have we been told that residential SIMs are shipped and dispatched to customers with the lower level of 3G and HSDPA? This information came from project/customer support liason level O2 staff. Also - why was Bill Ray from The Register told otherwise in his article about 3G speeds? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/o2_speed_limits/

Moreover - I have never encountered a residential customer outside this forum that has managed to get full speed 3g or HSDPA, so please be careful when you reply and please be perfectly honest with us. As you can probably tell by now, we have a knack for sniffing out half-truths and removing the wool that's been pulled over our eyes.

-By "are able", do you mean were always able to, or are NOW able to?

- Will we have to phone up O2 customer support to unlock each increment in speed over the year or will we automatically be upgraded?

- We have been informing you of this for more than 1 week - just look back at the early pages of this thread. Also have a look at people with similar problems over at MoDaCo and other forums.

- What do you mean by "provisioning error"? As far as we were aware from previous O2 correspondance, the problem was that O2 had simply not, until now, decided who should recieve full speed 3G and HSDPA other than business customers. Could you please clarify?

If you say that it was, in fact, just a problem for a small number of customers, rather than a nation-wide speed restriction on all (or almost all) residential customers, then a refund or treat or some other gift would be more appreciated on top of the apology. After all, if we were not getting the service we paid for that the "vast majority" of all other customers were supposedly already getting, then we should at least be due some compensation.
[Touch Cruise General] hinz:
As a residential customer I am still only receiving speeds upto 130kbps. (on HSDPA)

Hope this issue is fixed soon
[Touch Cruise General] Pete.:
I'd be happy to forget about the speed reduction and pt it down to something like 'reduced capacity whilst facilitating the roll-out of new technology' so long as the higher speeds are actually made available to everyone. My web-browsing has always been abysmally slow even in central London.
[Touch Cruise General] Pete.:
Are there any particular settings that need to be in place to extract the extra speed on O2? All I have is a tick-box in HSDPA in connections. I have NEVER had the H or 3G emblem, only-ever G or E.
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
Sounds like you've never been in an HSDPA or even 3G coverage area. The H or 3G symbol automatically appears if you are. Go here: http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/ and type in your postcode. It should show you the coverage for your area.

From O2's message here, they claim that only a small number of customers don't get full speed HSDPA. However, all residential customers on this forum have had to phone up the press office and ask Emma to get the higher level tech support people to lift the 128kbps restriction on their residential SIM cards. You will probably need to do the same if you haven't already done so.

You can try going through nomal customer services - you'd at least be able to test out whether O2's last statement (that they have now informed CS on how to upgrade speed-limited customers) is true.
[Touch Cruise General] robbatty:
What about Pay & Go with the data bolt on? I get HSDPA connection, but still at around 100 kbps. :(
[Touch Cruise General] reyjabs:
Yeah! Same here but could be a lot worse coz am only getting less than 100 kbps.:mad:
[Touch Cruise General] ptpeetee:
I get the H symbol all the time. Just done three speed tests, and only got between 112 and 118kbit/sec on O2

I'm in central London, using an Orbit2 with Bepe's 0.67 ROM.
[Touch Cruise General] O2UK:
response from head of technology engineering, O2 UK

1. yes, including residential customers. project/customer support liaison level O2 staff had and gave you incorrect information. Bill Ray from The Register was told otherwise by mistake. We mean ‘the vast majority’ except for those who will be able to access HSDPA later this week.

2. The vast majority were always able to.

3. you will be automatically upgraded in conjunction with the data tariffs

4. When you first alerted the press office to this about a month ago it appeared to be a handful of isolated cases. We only became aware of a wider provisioning error last week. Either way, we are grateful you brought it to our attention and that you have given us the opportunity to correct it.

5. Enabling data for customers requires a number of changes and transitions. Unfortunately an error was made in the provisioning speeds for a minority of our customers. This was not intentional and we are rectifying it now.

6. No operator guarantees maximum speeds. There are always technical factors that can affect the actual speeds customers are achieving, including the number of customers using 3G in the same area etc. As I said, it was not intentional and we are rectifying it now.
[Touch Cruise General] O2UK:
from head of technology engineering, O2 UK

We are putting all customers on the higher speeds now, so that should resolve this issue. It’s probably also worth checking for any restrictions on the device. O2 has good, competitive HSDPA 3G coverage throughout London.
[Touch Cruise General] O2UK:
from head of technology engineering, O2 UK

Again, we are putting all customers on the higher speeds now, so that should resolve this issue. It’s probably also worth checking for any restrictions on the device.
[Touch Cruise General] O2UK:
from head of technology engineering, O2 UK

Need to look into this. Can you message us directly so we can get some more details? many thanks.

And many thanks to everyone for giving us the opportunity to post on here.
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
OK, despite the fact that no residential customer I have ever heard of has attained speeds of more than 130kbps without having the speed restriction unlocked, and despite the fact that the same incorrect information appears to have been told to multiple people on multiple different occasions, we'll have to assume that O2 customer service and technical staff simply did not have any idea what they were talking about and just made up answers when we queried why we had to unlock a speed restriction. It seems it would be easier to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't know why you, specifically, have a speed restriction but i've unlocked it now"... rather than have multiple O2 technical staff independently making up the story that residential SIM cards are automatically speed restricted.

This makes no sense, but I suppose we'll have to take your answers to the first 5 questions as fact.

However, you mention in your answer to question 6 that technical factors such as number of customers connecting can affect 3G speeds, but that is NOT what happened here. Our residential SIM cards were restriced to 128kbps on BOTH 3G and HSDPA. This has absolutely nothing to do with network congestion - I assume you're not suggesting that there was no 3G/HSDPA speed limit of 128kbps?

If we were not getting the service we have been paying for, then we should be entitled to some sort of compensation. Would you buy a Ferarri or Porche, or any car for that matter, if it was deliberately limited to 10 mph? No - you wouldn't pay for it, and if you had not been informed of the speed restiction and actually bought the vehicle, you'd be entitled to a refund under the Goods and Services Act 1982, which states that the service must fit the description given and be fit for purpose.

Your mention of "HSDPA for super-fast browsing" on the Orbit2 page of the O2 website suggests that HSDPA is faster than the other methods of browsing - but if you're speed limted to 128kbps on both 3G and HSDPA, then it cannot be described as faster than other browsing methods. i.e. does not fit the description.

Will you at least concede this point?
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Well said Dysoong.
[Touch Cruise General] hinz:
I know there's no restrictions on the device because it's an Orbit 2, on unchanged network settings and default ROM.

I very much hope all customers are upgraded to the service we are paying for soon. Your news sounds promising...
[Touch Cruise General] Pete.:
I got through to a very helpful guy at O2 today who checked with tech support. I was at work right next to London Bridge and they said I should have access to nearly 40 Cell sites but I explained I'd never had anything but G or E on my phone (Orbit 2). I have HSDPA ticked on my device. I also have a setting in Comm Manager called Data Connection, but it is greyed-out, no setting chosen nor selectable.

They suggested that my SIM might be too old (it's 2-3 yrs old), and are sending me out a replacement to try. This should arrive nicely in time for the 18th when you say HSDPA should be fully available. If that is all my problem is, I shall be well-satisfied.

Thanks to everyone for their advice/comments.
[Touch Cruise General] scarymonkey:
I phoned tech support earlier today (about 7pm) after an email last week just got a try a different phone and sim response. The agent wasn't sure but a couple of minutes check and a clarification from me (in reality I probably explained it badly initially) he filled in a form to send off to the network engineers. I've just rebooted the phone and checked the speed again. I'm getting true 3G speeds so should get the faster HSDPA speeds when I get an Orbit2 next month.

One other thing though. Tech support tell you to check the coverage maps to see if you are in a good area. I did but since the maps round here haven't been updated since February, and 3G has only been available since mid March. Funnily the future map doesn't show a plan to upgrade to 3G either, but I am not complaining.

In all well done O2 customer support today but a shame the email support last week was found wanting.
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
Still capped, is this a roll out scenario where users are being sorted out in batches rather than all-at-once?
[Touch Cruise General] markda2000:
I asked on saturday for my connection speed to be upgraded.

Still waiting today, but the word is it will be by the end of the week.
[Touch Cruise General] mrchrispy:
New customer so SIM and orbit 2 arrived yesterday.

Connectivity showing at Mobile Web (HSDPA) but dlsreport/mspeed is consistantly giving me 120-140kbit/sec, I'll give it till tomorrow before giving CS a ring. Location is Sale/Manchester so I'd expect it to be higher
[Touch Cruise General] kutonglupa:
Nope! It's "First to complain, first to get sorted" scenario. That's why, you need to file an official complain.:D
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
O2 really need to sort this out for everyone. Come on O2, sort it out!
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
thing is, i did complain on friday, they said they knew nothing about it and refused to take it any further. today i got a message from the person i spoke to on friday - she said she'd seen a briefing on the intranet about the issue....

she says that 'they've' created a new 'form' that has to be filled in to remove the cap and she's filled in one of these forms...i phoned back tonight and spoke to CS who said they'd never heard of the issue being sorted for everyone, just people who they filled in the form for :confused:
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
I smell a rat. Anyone else think we've been told some porkies?

Either that or O2 CS haven't been briefed properly - again... but no surprises there, eh?

The subterfuge and lies in the past haven't helped, so I don't know what to believe... :(

I'd like to think they're actually really sorting it for everyone... they claimed that only a small number of customers were incorrectly speed restricted in the first place and that the restriction was now lifted for them, but we're still seeing folk on this forum with the same problem...
[Touch Cruise General] marisa4755:
Having spent over 45 minutes on the phone to CS last week, when I got cut off twice, and not having the problem resolved, I am very reluctant to throw more good time away on this. Can the O2 representative who kindly comes on here every now and again not give us a link to the correct form wherever that is, and we wait a couple of days and see the problem fixed?

That would be less of a waste of time for all concerned, surely?

If of course there is such a form, etc etc. I was told so many different things by so many different people at O2 that my head is still spinning. Please sort this out.
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
Come on O2, you can do better than this!
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
I have PMd the O2 guy with a recording of the message I got today...for what it's worth...
[Touch Cruise General] badaas:
i've never had a 'H' on my device, in my local town, or in Coventry or in Birmingham!!!

w00t?!!
[Touch Cruise General] bboori:
still too slow!

I have watching this thread for a weeks.

I was tryed to send a email.

answered from O2 cs but same answer like other member.

18/04/2008 is D-day. so I will wait and give a chance to O2

see u tommorow

*sorry my bad eng.

----------------------------------------------------

O2 Orbrit2

O2 UK User.

I want to sell my orbit1. pm me.
[Touch Cruise General] mrchrispy:
I got bored waiting for something to happen and decided to call CS. The girl really didn’t know what I was talking about until I pointed her in the direction of the support note telling them about the form to fill in, once she had a quick read she happily sorted it out. Nice lass, very helpful once she know what I was going on about.

I reckon it’s worth a call to CS, better safe that stuck at 140kbit/sec
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
I missed this the other day:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/15/o2_denies_caps/
[Touch Cruise General] mrchrispy:
another lady on CS just told me it'd take upto 36 hours for the change to come into effect one 'the form' had been filled in. probably worst case but i should see something sometime tomorrow.
[Touch Cruise General] Pete.:
Follow-up on my problem:

I received my new SIM today, activated it and put it in the phone and I now have the H symbol displayed. I guess that clears that up.

Worth noting for anyone who is a long-term O2 customer like me and upgrades their phone every year keeping the same SIM. You might need a new SIM to get 3G or HSDPA connectivity.

Only thing left to do now is find a SIM reader to extract my numbers off the old SIM as I forgot to copy them to my phone before putting the new SIM in. I'm not sure I want to risk putting the old SIM back in for fear of it being totally disabled :(
[Touch Cruise General] LargePig:
I have also been told 36 hours. Dslreports appears to be down anyway so I can't test it.
[Touch Cruise General] mrchrispy:
noticed Dslreports was down, it did cross my mind that o2 may have blocked it scupper us lot :D However it was also dead from my T-mobile phone so I took of the foil hat!! :rolleyes:
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
36 hours? 72 hours later and still capped :(
[Touch Cruise General] mrchrispy:
woohoo, on the 2 occasions I've got a responce from dslreports I've had 758 and 951....v.happy :)
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
yeah i did that...then i noticed it had switched to wi-fi :mad::o
[Touch Cruise General] dysoong:
Good news!

I really do hope that its sorted for everyone now, although I still have my doubts about the number of people affected and whether or not you still have to ask for the speed restriction to be lifted...
[Touch Cruise General] dpadmore:
I have been following this thread with interest since I have noticed that I have never once seen a data connection with O2 above ~120kb since getting my phone in February, regardless of 3G or HSDPA. As today is the fabled 18th I have just done a speed test and found that surprise surprise it is still showing 115Kb so they haven't removed the cap from my account. I did send a letter to their complaints review dept last week enclosing a copy of the first Register story but they haven't bothered to reply as yet. I will leave it until Monday and yet again try the soul destroying route of phoning customer services, no doubt for them once more to deny the problem...

Dave
[Touch Cruise General] MFC_Till_I_Die:
FFS O2 will you just fix this for everyone please? You can't even use the excuse that HSDPA is still testing any more.
[Touch Cruise General] Aleemz:
I thought the same too :D

A quick google search found another speed tester and I was getting 800 kbps to 900kbps at Manchester Airport today.
[Touch Cruise General] hinz:
Have been upgraded automatically overnight, speed test reports 907kbps.

I think O2 have just about kept their promise to sort it out by the 18th
[Touch Cruise General] bboori:
wow!!

..''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
[Touch Cruise General] bboori:
wow!!

I can download 798kb now.:)

O2 made it!

may be every member good speed now.

----------------------------

O2 Orbit2 UK

HTC original rom
[Touch Cruise General] ezman:
wahey, me too, full speed ahead now :D cheers o2
[Touch Cruise General] dpadmore:
Credit where credit is due, they have finally removed my cap so it look like from the posts above they have done it across the board.

Now maybe O2 might like to think about a geture for those that have been short changed for the last 3-6 months...

Dave
[Touch Cruise General] robbatty:
Pay & Go still seems to be limited. :(
[Touch Cruise General] hinz:
Even better now 1128kbps, awesome