Chances are, you’re already working hard to adjust to working from home, home-schooling your children or finding ways to stay engaged, like learning a new skill but being able to stay connected to your friends and family is likely high on your list of priorities too.
Such a major change in the nation’s habits has already been seen to have had an impact on the major carriers’ infrastructure, causing short-term outages that have hindered both phone calls and messages from getting through. With the state of the nation as it stands, such large loads on our network infrastructure are likely to continue for the time being, meaning further outages could occur over the months to come.
In this piece, we cover how to check the state of O2’s mobile network and if you’re experiencing problems, whether they lie with the wider network as a whole, or whether the problem is more localised. You might also find our how to boost your mobile signal feature useful.
How to check whether O2 is down
Start by heading to O2’s Network Checker, flipping to the ‘Network Status’ tab and inputting your postcodeCheck the likes of Twitter’s ‘Latest’ search tab and other social media platforms to see if other people are reporting outagesThird-party services like DownDetector can also be used to help verify any network issuesBy dialling ##4636## on an Android device, you can also find out whether voice and data are active, by checking the ‘Phone Information’ option
What to do when the problem is local to you
First things first, restart your phoneDouble-check that your SIM card is sitting in your SIM tray correctlyMove around – different locations, if far enough apart, may yield changes in signal strengthIs mobile data switched on? Check your phones settings or quick settings to find outEnsure flight mode is switched offCheck to see if your phone is running the latest firmware. Search ‘update’ in settings or look for a software update optionFor those still abroad, make sure data roaming is enabled within your device’s connectivity settingsHave you paid your latest phone bill? Check that the payment went through and has been accepted
Should none of the above work and the network isn’t suffering from widespread issues, back up your data and perform a factory reset on your device.
