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Comments for UPDATED: O2 Unveils £500m, 1500 Site Network Expansion

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Ben

12:51 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Aren't O2 and Vodafone combining/sharing networks in the UK? http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/mobile_exec/news.aspx?id=61551

How can O2 make this move unilaterally? Perhaps what they mean is that £500m has been invested in "Cornerstone"? It'd be good if you could find out more...

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Tim Sutton

1:00 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Hooray!

I don't suppose you have any information about where these new installations will be? I just tried a swift Google, but the only two relevant results were, well, both links to this article.

They can put a mast in my garden if they want. Hell, they can put one in my BEDROOM if it means Okehampton finally gets 21st century coverage.

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HK

1:20 PM on 18 November, 2009

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This is probably mostly in response to loosing the iPhone exclusivity and worrying everyone will jump ship to a carrier with decent coverage when their contract expires.

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Steve

1:35 PM on 18 November, 2009

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I really hope this is true. This should have happened 2 years ago!

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xenos

1:42 PM on 18 November, 2009

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"To put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously."

That looks like an admission at how horrendously overpriced text messages are to me..

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Chris

1:57 PM on 18 November, 2009

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"watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously"

I'm sure he said this to demonstrate the load a YouTube video puts on the network, but to me it just demonstrates how little load SMS messages place on a network. Why aren't all SMS messages free, in this day and age?!?

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Chris

1:57 PM on 18 November, 2009

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@xenos:

Snap!

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Gordon394

1:58 PM on 18 November, 2009

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@Ben - they are combining (http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/news/2009/03/23/Vodafone---O2-Ink-Mast-Sharing-Deal/p1) but that doesn't mean either network will stop expanding their networks, they will simply share masts as and where beneficial. The big aim of this development is to improve capacity.

@HK - possibly, but it could also be good for O2 since the iPhone swamped its network.

@Steve & xenos - very true!

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lifethroughalens

1:59 PM on 18 November, 2009

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@ xenos - Nail. Head. Great observation!

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Chris

2:15 PM on 18 November, 2009

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So if you're on a plan that charges you 12p per text message and a YouTube video was charged at the same rate, that YouTube video would cost you £60,000 to download. Hmmm....

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Steve

2:23 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Yes, text messaging could be free. Hence why on most tariffs you get 100's to send a month (you even get 100's on PAYG now!). The networks are looking to make money from data & add-ons rather than SMS these days.

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Orinj

2:54 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Technically, SMS doesn't cost the network anything as it's part of the GSM signalling rather than a specific service.

Prior to cross-network SMS towards the end of the 1990's SMS was free as the networks hadn't even figured out how to charge the customer so they couldn't.

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ChaosDefinesOrder

3:02 PM on 18 November, 2009

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at least we're still better off than America who get charged to RECEIVE SMS messages! Theoretically you an completely screw someone by sending hundreds of SMS a day to someone, not pay a penny and they would have a huge bill.

I'm VERY glad they have it the right way round in the UK, even if it is one of the most expensive countries in the EU for SMS prices. Seriously, should be 1p per message not 12p!

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Hugo

3:23 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Guys, bear in mind a YouTube video is putting a constant strain on a tower. If enough people are watching videos it's effectively blocking the network's ability to carry 'normal' traffic; it's this that's causing O2 so many problems. Think of it like torrenting a video and streaming it at the same time; each interferes with the other and the end result is that neither functions ideally.

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xenos

3:57 PM on 18 November, 2009

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I look forward to seeing them squirm Gordon. No doubt they will talk about how its funding their new (and extremely overdue) network upgrades to provide a 'World class' service or some other vague and tacky response.

A bit of a fopar for the 'Chief Technology Officer' to make though.

The truth is there is no justification for the price of text messages to be as high as they are, I think regulation should be used if they don't start the ball rolling themselves soon..

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xbrumster

3:57 PM on 18 November, 2009

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mighty O2 has milked enough money to invest in infrastructure in order to milk more money...

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Keithe6e

4:28 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Text messages are so expensive because network operators use the same tactics as our government, "Death by a thousand cuts" anyone?

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OldTimer

4:56 PM on 18 November, 2009

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I think texts should be free, and voice and data too. Oh then there would be no income to pay for the network....

Paying for texts is just part of a business model. If you pay enough on your contract you don't pay for them individually.

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xenos

4:57 PM on 18 November, 2009

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ONE video stream = HALF A MILLION texts. (According to o2)

I don't think they have realised the enormity of their Chief Technical Officer's blunder..

In terms of money, o2 can either milk it in with £60,000 worth of texts or let you have a 5mb Youtube video as part of your web £7.50 bolt on with a 200MB monthly usage allowance. (Which o2 also makes a profit on don't forget!)

Now o2, please explain to me why it costs you several thousand times more to process the texts than it does stream a video, when the video infact puts a more detrimental type of load on the mast as Hugo pointed out..

I understand there are 'other costs' but they are also tiny. Otherwise you would point out what they were no doubt..

Somebody start a petition!

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CodeMonkey

6:52 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Long overdue.

I've tried reporting poor signal areas to them before. The standard line I get back is 'Oh it must be your phone'. Only problem with that excuse is I've had 4 phones that have the same problem at the same location in Stevenage. Roll on 2010.

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Saltank

8:41 PM on 18 November, 2009

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I just received a half broken text from o2 saying my iPhone has been unlocked, it was truly creepy, considering they couldn't even send a full text to tell me what ELSE I had to do to get other sims to work (no I was not bothered enough to connect it to Itunes and see).

If this is any indication of how things are going on at o2, I don't want to take any second chances with them. I've had enough of trying to receive my e-mail with GPRS on my iPhone 3G when pretty much all the other providers (even the rubbish T-Mobile) can give me an HSDPA signal with my mobile broadband dongles for my Eee PC.

Out of curiosity, I immediately popped in my Orange SIM after the iPhone was unlocked. o2 gave me 1-2 3G bars out on the balcony, 5 bars GPRS when inside. Orange/Vodafone? full strength 3G signal ANYWHERE.

Also, it would have been very good indeed if all other networks did such an excellent service checker like Orange, I would have at least known, truthfully, what service to expect.

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Ben

9:36 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Wish they'd hurry up and send me my unlock text, seems everyone else is getting theirs! Sorry, O2, this investment is coming far too late - I'll be dumping you for a network that has been investing all along :)

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BenH

10:40 PM on 18 November, 2009

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Glad to hear this is coming. I'm routinely unable to get any 3G bandwith in central London even with a strong 3G signal showing (I'm not trying to stream video - simply to check e-mails). If you can't provide a reliable service in the centre of London, what hope the rest of the country!? I'm looking forward to action, not words.

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RajivDhir

11:10 PM on 18 November, 2009

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guys I suggest that you simply use the IM clients on that shiny new smartphone! then you won't need texts, I think I'm finally about to kill my text bolt-on as my last nephew has got an iPhone.

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MrHorizontal

12:03 AM on 19 November, 2009

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2 points:

1. £500m for 240 new masts (are you sure that a single mast costs £2.1m, after all it's just a pole with a radio antenna and a broadband connection - How about using Be's network as a backhaul?!) doesn't seem like it will be enough to satiate demand - though at least it'll hopefully mean I can make a call in rush hour in Soho/Tottenham Court Road (yep, no chance these days) let alone check my email.

2. The one thing you forgot to mention in the mobile broadband article, and the one thing you should be asking Ofcom and the networks, is when will they simply offer an unmetered mobile broadband deal in the same vein as conventional broadband and pipe all services over IP, since MMS is already a web application and can take care of SMS as well, VoIP is biting at the bit pending a network to actually allow its usage and everything else to do with a network is IP based anyway.

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