O2's UK Network Crash Hits Offender Monitoring System 56
judgecorp writes "Mobile operator O2's network crashed on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. In the aftermath it has emerged how other services rely on mobile networks. Law enforcement agencies were unable to track some convicted criminals wearing electronic tags, and the crash also disabled parts of London's network of 'Boris Bikes' — public hire bikes."
Finally, news of some proper consequences (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we're finally hearing of the important consequences of O2's network being down. I couldn't help but be irritated at how this was being reported in the news. Hysterical accounts of how Joe. Q. Public couldn't use their mobile. One news paper even found it news worthy to report that someone on twitter said they missed a phone call from their daughter! Wow, that really sounds like a living nightmare. Of course, there is also the inevitable talk of compensation... SPOILER: most people use their phones for inconsequential, inane yacking. For most people mobiles are a convenient toy they can live without. I hope it was just the news stirring things up and that we haven't all been reduced to being whiny cry babies. My mobile was affected (GiffGaff) but somehow I managed to deal with it and get on with life.
My sympathy is entirely with the engineers who would have certainly been under immense pressure to get this fixed ASAP, and to also provide a totally useless "ETA to resolution". Urgh, I've been there :(
Re:Finally, news of some proper consequences (Score:5, Insightful)
The demand for compensation is amusing, as most people don't pay more than £30 a month for service - so a 3 day outage corresponds to £3 of service fees, and yet I've seen people demanding O2 pay them £50 or more for their inconvenience. Today's compensation culture is laughable and more than a little disgusting.