The British mobile operator, O2 has experienced an outage on 12 July 2012 at 13:30; it had lasted more than a day. The fault may have been because of the Ericsson (News - Alert) Centralized User Database (CUDB), the data storage node of transitioning subscriber data, which provided a single point of failure; the failure could have also been the result of one of O2’s (News - Alert) own network systems too.

Regardless of who’s to blame, O2 or Ericsson, it was not until 08:00 the next morning, on the 13th, that O2’s 2G network service and 3G data services came back up, were restored and functional.

Looking back, O2’s network failure did cause inconvenience and frustration to those customers who were impacted: the loss of coverage made it difficult for customers to make calls or receive them, as well as made it impossible to send texts or use data.

Even though O2 apologized to all affected customers for the outage that caused an outrage, they are giving each and every contract customer three days of free connectivity in compensation, in addition to getting £10 to spend in the O2 store.

Those who have been affected by the O2 outage can find out more about the network disruption on the company’s blog, which covers in details what occurred; there are updates on the incident. There is also information on how O2 customers can get their £10 voucher, if they have yet to receive the same info via text message. With no obligation to provide any compensation, O2 just wants its customers to remain loyal and not have such an incident ruin the reputation of being one of UK's most popular mobile network operators.

System outages are common occurrence for many Multiple Service Providers; but, many do not offer an apology to customers like O2 did or do something to make up for the troubles. It is important to know that O2 has done everything they could to correct the problem and let people know of it: O2 has alerted its customers of the problem by using Twitter and Facebook (News - Alert) to spread the word. Customers are urged to check feeds for updates from these social media sites.

Customers should be happy to know that O2 has done the changes to mitigate the risk of another outage happening again; they have an experienced team on hand to make sure the network will continue to run smoothly, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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