back to article Orange data users turning red as data dries up

Orange's data network is heading titsup across the UK, with both cellular and broadband networks affected and little in the way of explanation. The problems appeared this morning with mobile users unable to check mail on the way in to work. The mobile data problems are said to be affecting users countrywide. We're now getting …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    who'd notice?

    My broadband seems to have largely unaffected

    However, since I'm lucky to get 2Mb/s on my "up-to" 8Mb/s connection during the day, maybe I have been affected and just didn't notice. If it's still giving problems this evening, when other local people have the effrontery to also want to access t'internet, and my rate drops to between 500 and 800 Kbs, there will no point in asking me at all.

  2. af1

    This is ridiculous

    I am trying to start up a business and internet access is very important to me; contacting suppliers, liaising with potential customers... with no broadband this is completely impossible...

    I'm typing this now, but i have no idea if it will be published because by the time i have written this the connection will probably disappear again!

    My router status shows myself as being connected, with an IP address and everything but try and enter a web address and you get nothing!

    I phoned up technical support and got a pre-recorded message telling me that there is a problem and they dont know how long the outage will last for!

    First thing i did when finally connecting to the internet was go to the orange home page for some kind of explanation, what do i get on the hope page, a big advert asking if i wanted to sign up for home broadband... i dont think so do you!

    Ironically i got a call from BT yesterday trying to sell me 'super fast broadband' kind of wish i had said yes now!

    Sort it out Orange yeah?

    kthankbye

    Alan

  3. Pete 13
    Thumb Down

    It's Back!

    After a frustrating morning of no Orange Broadband, ours is now back at 12:30pm. Is it T Mobile that's looking to merge with Orange, or is it Gmail?

  4. Daniel Gould
    Thumb Up

    That explains why

    my Blackberry was showing 'edge' instead of 'EDGE' this morning. I've happily switched to UMA now using my home broadband (non-Orange) and getting full service again

    Wonder if it's anything to do with their planned merger with T-Mobile ? Giving us a taster of the level of service we can expect in the future maybe ??? :-)

  5. Robert Hill
    Terminator

    The TIMING

    Bill, the timing of this article, co-inciding with the "Too much spectrum for T-Orange" article is, er, unfortunate, at least if this problem can be laid at the feet of data network loads. And I would take that bet...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    If it's a Blackberry issue

    how come my home broadband was dead this morning?!!!!

  7. J. Simon van der Walt

    Broadband down most of the morning

    Broadband was down most of the morning here, just come back up at about 1240. At least customer services admittted to me straight away there was a problem, instead of passing me off to the stupid and expensive tech support like they usually do.

  8. Tom Chiverton 1

    Fine in Manchester

    3G data working fine here...

  9. Dangerous Dave
    FAIL

    hah!

    Not just my O2 data that's up and down like a whores drawers then

  10. John Robson Silver badge

    Down - -

    flicking between 50 and 100% packet loss much of the morning, our house seems to be back now though...

  11. Andy ORourke
    Joke

    Not using COLT fore backhaul are they?

    title says it all ;-)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    No connection all morning

    ... on all data services including blackberry services. :-(

  13. Nick P

    It's bad

    I can confirm that, for me in Birmingham, both Orange Broadband and BIS/GPRS are misbehaving quite badly.

    I phoned 156 just now (11:10) and was told that "everything is down". I asked for an ETA for a fix and was told "we're just waiting". I'm not slagging off the person at 156 (they're very good when there's a problem that they can actually fix) but it sounds like something pretty bad has happened.

  14. Shades

    It may have...

    ...started earlier than you think. The missus couldn't get online (broadband) last night at 11:30pm. Thats in North Staffordshire if it helps.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Broadband is completely down for me at home

    The annoying thing is that Orange's helpline is saying there's nothing wrong.

  16. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    To state the obvious

    "no official word on the cause as yet" How could they without their means of communication?

    EA

  17. Bilgepipe
    FAIL

    Just wait a while

    Not to worry, I'm sure by the end of the first decade of the 21st century these humungous telcos will have reached the point where they can balance profits against keeping their network up and running. Just wait and see.

  18. Apocalypse Later

    Actually it was last night...

    ...when the data stopped flowing. I was happily surfing when everything just stopped. The mobile broadband connection module still showed a good signal, but nothing was coming through.

    So today I am using the O2 mobile broadband dongle instead. Unusually, they are up today.

  19. Nik Owen
    FAIL

    And they were doing so well!

    Having had my BB for 3 months things were going so well!

    How we miss email on the way into work, but no annoying alerts filling the car this morning.

    It'sd not as bad as the story reads, a quick reboot and all is back in the world of mobile office (alerts included) did someone put a few iPhones on the network?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Some users...

    Myself not being in that list (as of 12:00 Thurs).

    Paris - cos she'd be a bit red too if she dried up.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Orange Service - Newcastle area

    Was broken for a while yesterday morning, working fine now.

    Upgrade gone wrong ?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    re: We're sure that T-Mobile will be watching

    >> We're sure that T-Mobile will be watching closely to see what kind of operation it's committed itself to merging with.

    And probably thinking - we can shave a few million off of support costs and get it down to our level of phone coverage

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So

    Getting service levels in line with T-mobile then

  24. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Kettle & pot...

    ROFLMAO - I work at Orange; for the last few weeks they've been puuting up posters in the toilets above the urinals with a Telegraph story about O2 data network outages and losing iPhone exclusivity - I guess what goes around comes around!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tell me about it...

    Infact the fault started last night, was around 23:00 I think when I lost my broadband in the middle of some surfing.

    Checking that my DSL was up so it didnt look like a local fault to me line, I decided life was too precious than to endure the Orange Broadband Non-Technical Support telling me to clear temporary files and reboot PC for a sympton that can be nothing but a network level issue.

    I do see a dribble of life on the service now and again, I can get maybe one 1 successful ping out of a 100 through, and my firewall logs show only a single packet of the usual internet noise managing to hit my router about once an hour.

    Strangely i'm on Orange mobile also, but the 3G data has been OK in the same area is OK.

  26. Jimbo09990
    FAIL

    Status page

    Why doesn't Orange have a network status page???

    I can't find anything on their site about this problem or when its going to be fixed.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    It's life Jim, but not as we know it...

    My broadband connect started dropping last night and it's been dead ever since. A collegue's Crackberry on Orange has been down as well.

    Apparently it is Orange's "highest priority".

  28. Shades
    Unhappy

    What was possibly wrong...

    ...with my comment stating that my girlfriends (Orange) broadband was down at 11:30 last night, so it didn't just happen this morning?

    Apple is evil... because usually anything stating Apple is evil gets published! ;-)

  29. James 5
    Happy

    Business is important...

    af1 says "I am trying to start up a business and internet access is very important to me; contacting suppliers, liaising with potential customers... with no broadband this is completely impossible..."

    To which I ask - "Why are you using Orange for broadband?".

    Our business is also important to us. We've used one smallish ISP for years with very, very little problem and a very high level of support.

    We don't touch any of the "big" players simply because they are too big to offer a good reliable service... as reports on the Register continue to show.

    Before getting broadband it's worth checking this:

    http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html

    which is NOT concerned purely with price! What does it matter if you're paying an extra £200.00 per year if your £200,000 turnover is killed by lack of service from your cheaper ISP !

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fine in gloucestershire...

    ...at least for me anyway :)

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @AC in gloucestershire

    Not fine in Worcestershire ...

    Went down last night around 11pm - the line was still synced so I left it till this morning. It was still bad at 8am so I decided to reboot the router - now I cannot authenticate :(

  32. Ventilator
    Black Helicopters

    Going down

    My Girlfriend is on Orange BB, was Ok for her at 07:00 this morning, crashed about 08:00, still off at the moment.

    Wonderful MS Network diagnostics told her that there was a problem with the (perfectly functioning) wireless connection between her (WinXP) PC and the router!!!

    I'd like to echo Jimbo09990's comment about a status page on the Orange website. Why isn't there one? Orange too afraid to admit they may have problems, perhaps?

    Well done Orange for keeping your customers fully informed and living up to your 'excellent customer service' standards. In case there are any Orange people (I'm sure they'd stand out in a crowd!) reading this, yes, that was sarcasm.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still no time to fix...

    Latest update: "Cable and Wireless have logged a fibre break out to BT and an engineer is on site and investigating at the present time. More updates to follow"

  34. MTField

    Problems from 9pm

    For me here in southern Oxfordshire, the problems started at 9pm. The Wi-Fi box showed it had sync but no packets were being transfered at all.

    I called Orange Technical Support to hear a recorded message saying and I quote "Due to technical reasons we cannot take your call!" so I assumed then and there that it was a major outage and their switchboard was inundated with calls.

    Called their network status number last night around 11pm and they had no reported issues with the network. i called again this morning at 8am and they were reporting "authentication issues" for "some customers". Broadband web access eventually came back up today at around 12pm.

  35. Ventilator
    FAIL

    Going down part 2...

    Forgot to mention that my girlfriend lives in the Midlands around the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border....seems from those who've stated a location that this is centred around the Midlands.....is this anything to do with that recent survey that stated people would leave the area if they could? Have Orange taken it too literally?

  36. Adam H 1
    FAIL

    Luck of the draw ..

    My crackberry still has no data but 2 colleagues are using theres with no problem, I was on the verge of phoning them back this morning to say I had been fobbed off about some nonsense about an outage until I seen the reg article.

    Havent had Blackberry data since about 3:30am and its still down.

  37. ExRLCBod
    Stop

    Latest News is apparently

    Fibre break was due to vandalism, engineers are on site, still no time to fix.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Alll ok at Heathrow

    Title says it all

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    @ business is important - careful about reviews

    http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html which is NOT concerned purely with price..

    how come no ISP reviewed has 2 stars or less?? (some have 0 stars but are not reviewed)

    LMAO Tiscali has "average" 2 1/2 stars & Arnolds listed as probably the best opens 9-5 Mon-Fri ..

    any wonder why Business UK is in trouble when we judge s*** service as "average" ...

    I'm off to get my Colt account as we can afford to lose contact with customers for 2 days..

    oops.. I can't place my order as I'm with Orange....

  40. Justabloke 1
    Stop

    started last night...

    I lost my Orange BB services last night.... about 11.30. so if its still down then it must be quite major :(

  41. PhilCalvert

    Back up at 7pm

    I've just got off the phone with Orange - their call centre team have been told that service should be restored by 7pm tonight.

  42. Nik Owen

    I spoke too soon :-(

    my BB had been working all morning, came out of a meeting and hey presto no data.

    but one battery pull and it's back. very slow but back.

  43. GlennPhillips
    Alert

    Getting mail again

    Stopped getting msgs about 3am - Blackberry has been gprs (lower-case) all day, just rebooted seeing as comments indicated service resumed - and getting some through in Enfied - but painfully slow.

  44. peter garner
    Coat

    "Fibre break was due to vandalism"

    If that's the case I hate to think what will happen if there's a terrorist attack. As I understand it, there's a procedure in place where the emergency services take over a major part of the mobile networks, but if the network's already damaged there'll not be a lot of point.

    Mine's the one with the tin foil hat...

  45. HonkingAntelope
    FAIL

    Orange = FAIL

    Orange Home Max went down for me at 11.02 last night ... last time my iPod synced for emails .... just rang home and it seems to be back now.

    Second problem in as many weeks, looks like after all these years of reliable service I'm gonna have to switch to another ISP.

    BTW I live in Sheerness in Kent.

  46. Sheppy
    IT Angle

    it was the "OrangeVPN" AP that didn't work for me

    Switched to "Orangeinternet" first thing this morning and it's been fine apart from the odd no gateway reply, but that's something you get used to on Orange!

  47. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Dont you just hate it.....

    I had this problem first thing and went to the orange web site. If you log in to your account you are greeted with a service status page..... all day it says "No Known Issues". We use 65 blackberrys and I have just got off the phone to Oranges competition..... Apart from laughing at the shower in the fruit bowl they have done us a real good deal!

    Not sure about the Oranges you guys are looking at but my one has grey and green mold growing on it.... Maybe time for a change.

  48. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Vandalised Fibre Cable the cause..

    Orange customer service have advised us that the failure has been caused by vandalism to one of their fibre links. They should have a workaround to restore connectivity by 7pm.

  49. dervheid
    Happy

    Broadband Working Ok...

    in Central Jockland.

    Not that anyone gives a toss!

  50. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Orange has gone Pear Shape

    that's all really, just wanted to get an obvious pun in.

  51. Jay Jaffa
    FAIL

    Peering & Inter-connect issues

    It's looking like it's not their core network but more likely their inter-connecting links with the outside world - likely a faulty router or a bad core route to the Internet Exchange. Not sure why it can take so long to resolve and BGP routing could be re-configured to avoid these poor routes. Bet they wish they'd stuck with IPStream rather than buying Wannadoo's Unbundled network today.

  52. mfraz
    FAIL

    Third time this week so far

    Today is the third time this week that I've had no Internet connection via Orange - Saturday, Sunday and now today. I doubt it will get any better after the merger either.

  53. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mad, or...

    "One told us he was staring at two BlackBerry devices on his desk"

    The man must be either mad, or both!

  54. Matthew Brown
    Paris Hilton

    DSL was partially down here

    Some protocols would work, but http was sporadic. Some sites worked, some didn't. Streaming live video was useless. Not chuffed at all. Seems to be slightly better today, but I don't want to tempt fate.

    Paris because I reckon she works in their customer communications department.

  55. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    change operator

    Switch to Vodafone or O2!

  56. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not an authentication issue.... But back now

    I do this sh1t for a living so reset and monitored the ADSL interfaces on my router when I was hit late last night. It was slow for PPP to kick in and get an IP address assigned, maybe 1-2 mins, but eventually it did. But when I got one my connectivity was about 1%. The router has already sent it's username and password (authenticated), to be given an IP address. I was logging in just fine (but slowly). The authentication stage was working.

    It's a wild guess but the only feasible authentication related issue I could imagine is if their servers were handing out the wrong IP's to the wrong area's, or duplicate IP addresses - yes that could fit the ability to get the odd packet through now and again.

    Otherwise this has got core network failure (physical or logical) written all over it.

  57. Professor Quatermass
    WTF?

    O2 is going mad this evening

    The Speaking Telegraph (a.k.a., my JesusPhone 3G) has been sending my speakers into a state of static frenzy.

    Methinks it isn't just Orange going chest-to-the-sky today.

    Does this make four for O2 now?

  58. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    re vandalism

    Received a national alert regarding network "attacks" this morning, with the usual call police/bt security then throw BT supplied hand thingy and stand well back.http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/grenade_32.png

  59. JBM
    FAIL

    Down for 12 hours?

    I found Orange broadband down intermittently late Wednesday evening, solid fault from about 11.15pm in the Reading area. Still down until late Thursday morning, despite Orange status telephone line reporting no problems.

    Very slow to repair

  60. Robin Szemeti
    FAIL

    I know their SMS service is working just fine

    I phoned (yet again) to complain at the level of junk SMS's I'm getting from them,

    and to threaten to take this to ICSTIS because I Just don;t want any more SMS

    crap from them and ...

    sure enough .. within an hour I get an SMS inviting me to take part in a customer satisfaction survey on my last interraction with their call center ... nice one.

    Gits.

  61. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Not Just Orange, and Honest Reviews

    I am not on Orange, niether is my mother or the local Primary school, but all of us had limited or no BB for much of today (Malvern, Worcestershire); in my case, I had no access to email but BB was working; I am with Vispa, who are NOT part of Orange.

    For HONEST ISP reviews and advice, visi twww.ispreview.co.uk

  62. SirTainleyBarking
    Stop

    South Birmingham

    Last night, Broadband went down about midnight. So instead of surfing for pr.., sorry reviewing product data for work I had to go to bed at a reasonable time instead

  63. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NTL Too?

    Hmm, my NTL (sorry Virgin) broadband has been refusing to sever some sites (hotmail), very slow on others and ok on some for the past couple of hours...

  64. Steve Evans

    Perfect...

    Perfect example of why you shouldn't go with one of these wonderful discount packages of mobile, broadband et al from one company. If they have a big problem with their network you're going to be screwed.

    I might have an Orange mobile, and my broadband might be from the masters of cr*p, Tiscali, but hedging my bets across them and I've not been without my TCP/IP packet fix for years.

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