• TV
  • MOVIES
  • MUSIC
  • SHOWBIZ
  • SOAPS
  • GAMING
  • TECH
  • FORUMS
  • Follow
    • Follow
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • google+
    • instagram
    • youtube
Hearst Corporation
  • TV
  • MOVIES
  • MUSIC
  • SHOWBIZ
  • SOAPS
  • GAMING
  • TECH
  • FORUMS
Forums
  • Register
  • Login
  • Forums
  • Gadgets
  • Mobile Phones
O2 Texts
<<
<
2 of 2
>>
>
JJ_
01-01-2006
Originally Posted by Garyo2:
“O2 has tremendous SMS capacity, the server has been upgraded multiple times over the last couple of years.”

How do you know O2 have upgraded their servers multiple times? Dont tell me you have a cousin working at O2.

Originally Posted by Garyo2:
“Problems occur when companies spam mobile users with advertisements etc. If you have a base station where a lot of customers have their phones turned off, or are out of range then it causes these spam SMS to pend on the network. These pending messages fill the SMS buffer at the base station. Within the space of 1-2 days the base station could be trying to forward the SMS 30-50 times. Multiply this over many customers and just like an email server services can be effected.”

Let me rectify you there. When a SMS message is sent, the phone sends the SMS message to the SMSC (Short Message Service Center). The SMSC stores the message and then delivers it to the destination user when they are available. This is a store and forward operation (A store-and-forward switching center is a message switching center in which a message is accepted from the originating user, i.e., sender, when it is offered, held in a physical storage, and forwarded to the destination user, i.e., receiver, in accordance with the priority placed upon the message by the originating user and the availability of an outgoing channel [wikipedia])

There is no such thing as a "SMS buffer" at the base station. Messages are stored on physical storage, i.e. a harddrive.

Originally Posted by Garyo2:
“The SMS service does work and hasn't failed once in the last 12 months. Any issues are localised, some of which o2 have NO control over. Why did you not let o2 know if there were these SMS issues? If you have not been with o2 for over 12 months, how can you comment on what the service is like now?”

I can safely say that O2's SMS service has been down more than once during 2005. Going through threads in the mobile telephony forum here, i have seen more people complaining about O2 than any other network. I registered my O2 sim in 2002 and ive been with O2 for well over 3 years. IMO their service has worsened over the years. I wouldnt want to pay 50p a minute ringing their CS when you are put on hold for 5 minutes then when you finally get through, the rep on the other end doesnt know what youre talking about.

Quite simply O2 have gone down the pan. As soon as i use up my credit my O2 sim will be no more.
WordLife
01-01-2006
while some customers are moving from O2 (or have moved) there are others (like me) who refuse to move...

i wont move because over half my phonebook is made of numbers of people i know who are also on O2
Quackers
01-01-2006
All my mates that are 02 are always having delayed texts throughout the whole year, not just on one offs. They are normally the last to get the text when is send it to them. In the short time i had a pay as you go 02 Sim i experienced the delays my self.

With my experience, and others on here, i would think 02 have an SMS problem.
Garyo2
02-01-2006
Originally Posted by JJ_:
“How do you know O2 have upgraded their servers multiple times? Dont tell me you have a cousin working at O2.”

Well actually I do have a cousin who works for o2 now you come to mention it. However I don't get my information from her, I have no need you see.


Originally Posted by JJ_:
“ Let me rectify you there. When a SMS message is sent, the phone sends the SMS message to the SMSC (Short Message Service Center). The SMSC stores the message and then delivers it to the destination user when they are available. This is a store and forward operation (A store-and-forward switching center is a message switching center in which a message is accepted from the originating user, i.e., sender, when it is offered, held in a physical storage, and forwarded to the destination user, i.e., receiver, in accordance with the priority placed upon the message by the originating user and the availability of an outgoing channel [wikipedia])

There is no such thing as a "SMS buffer" at the base station. Messages are stored on physical storage, i.e. a harddrive.”

Yes, that will teach me to read through my posts that i make late at night. The SMS centre (SMSC) is the storage and relay centre however (and not the base station BTS as I have for some reason incorrectly put above).

When a user tries to send a SMS their device will try sending the SMS to the Base station, which will then pass it on to the Base station controller, the controller will then pass the SMS to the SMS centre. The SMSC will then try forwarding on the SMS however this is where the problems can occur. The SMSC talks to the HLR and the VLR which are located at the Mobile Switiching centre where the recipients mobile phone is active. The SMSC then sends the message through the mobile switching centre then to the base station controller and eventually if will arrive at the correct base station.

If the phone is turned off or out of signal the SMSC monitors the network and will do so for a set period of time (7 - 10 days in o2's case). Because the SMSC is integrated into the network it can communicate with the HLR and VLR. When the phone is turned on the SMSC will realise this and it will then log it and also log the Mobile switching centre it is located on. The HLR/VLR will also tell the SMSC that the device has been turned on.

As i mentioned above the SMSC will delete the messages from its buffer. And yes the SMSC does indeed have buffers. The buffers are used to try help reducing congestion. The buffer is here to hold a user's message. The buffer will also fill up if messages are arriving faster than the network can process them. When the buffer is full the SMSC stop accepting messages from that user until they pick the SMS up. Obviously the SMS are stored using hardware at the SMSC however each user is allocated their own buffer.

No telecommunications company is going to cater for peak loads such as on Christmas or New Years eve. All the networks aim to give more than adequate capacity for normal day to day use. As i mentioned, o2 does indeed have enough capacity to serve its customers day to day.

What people don't realise is SMS and voice calls have to be balanced. If you want to increase the amount of SMS capacity you have to do so at a trade off with voice calls and / or call quality. Networks only have so much bandwidth.

If a customers phone is not turned on this increases the load on the network. Thus when companies start Spamming mobile users on key days it adds to an already increased network load.

An SMS occupies a standalone dedicated channel for 4-5 seconds so when you start to mulitply this by the amount of users you can easily reach the network capacity when everyone hammers the network at the same time. To make for room on the network on the existing bandwidth it is possible to increase the transcievers in each of the sectors, an higher capacity sector with more transcievers could contain more standalone dedicated channels however this could adverseley effect call quality. More standalone dedicated channels would mean more SMS's being able to be sent, however it would mean less voice call capacity.

Originally Posted by JJ_:
“I can safely say that O2's SMS service has been down more than once during 2005. Going through threads in the mobile telephony forum here, i have seen more people complaining about O2 than any other network. I registered my O2 sim in 2002 and ive been with O2 for well over 3 years. IMO their service has worsened over the years. I wouldnt want to pay 50p a minute ringing their CS when you are put on hold for 5 minutes then when you finally get through, the rep on the other end doesnt know what youre talking about.

Quite simply O2 have gone down the pan. As soon as i use up my credit my O2 sim will be no more. ”

As i have mentioned before, the o2 sms service doesn't usually go down as a whole. I don't have any data from December, however the whole SMS service did not go down between Jan and Nov. I know this is of no use to the people effected when there arelocalised issues.

As has been pointed out before, one of the reason's there are more complaints on here is probably because there is a bigger proportion of customers using o2's network who are members here.

O2 no longer charge 50p per min for customer services, you now get a normal number to phone, just like o2 offline customers.

The network has most certainly improved over the years, i have seen this first hand.
JJ_
03-01-2006
Originally Posted by Garyo2:
“Yes, that will teach me to read through my posts that i make late at night. The SMS centre (SMSC) is the storage and relay centre however (and not the base station BTS as I have for some reason incorrectly put above).

When a user tries to send a SMS their device will try sending the SMS to the Base station, which will then pass it on to the Base station controller, the controller will then pass the SMS to the SMS centre. The SMSC will then try forwarding on the SMS however this is where the problems can occur. The SMSC talks to the HLR and the VLR which are located at the Mobile Switiching centre where the recipients mobile phone is active. The SMSC then sends the message through the mobile switching centre then to the base station controller and eventually if will arrive at the correct base station.

If the phone is turned off or out of signal the SMSC monitors the network and will do so for a set period of time (7 - 10 days in o2's case). Because the SMSC is integrated into the network it can communicate with the HLR and VLR. When the phone is turned on the SMSC will realise this and it will then log it and also log the Mobile switching centre it is located on. The HLR/VLR will also tell the SMSC that the device has been turned on.

As i mentioned above the SMSC will delete the messages from its buffer. And yes the SMSC does indeed have buffers. The buffers are used to try help reducing congestion. The buffer is here to hold a user's message. The buffer will also fill up if messages are arriving faster than the network can process them. When the buffer is full the SMSC stop accepting messages from that user until they pick the SMS up. Obviously the SMS are stored using hardware at the SMSC however each user is allocated their own buffer.

No telecommunications company is going to cater for peak loads such as on Christmas or New Years eve. All the networks aim to give more than adequate capacity for normal day to day use. As i mentioned, o2 does indeed have enough capacity to serve its customers day to day.

What people don't realise is SMS and voice calls have to be balanced. If you want to increase the amount of SMS capacity you have to do so at a trade off with voice calls and / or call quality. Networks only have so much bandwidth.

If a customers phone is not turned on this increases the load on the network. Thus when companies start Spamming mobile users on key days it adds to an already increased network load.

An SMS occupies a standalone dedicated channel for 4-5 seconds so when you start to mulitply this by the amount of users you can easily reach the network capacity when everyone hammers the network at the same time. To make for room on the network on the existing bandwidth it is possible to increase the transcievers in each of the sectors, an higher capacity sector with more transcievers could contain more standalone dedicated channels however this could adverseley effect call quality. More standalone dedicated channels would mean more SMS's being able to be sent, however it would mean less voice call capacity.”

Your theory is far too much bloated for me to read, itll have to be left for another day

Originally Posted by Garyo2:
“As i have mentioned before, the o2 sms service doesn't usually go down as a whole. I don't have any data from December, however the whole SMS service did not go down between Jan and Nov. I know this is of no use to the people effected when there arelocalised issues.

As has been pointed out before, one of the reason's there are more complaints on here is probably because there is a bigger proportion of customers using o2's network who are members here.

O2 no longer charge 50p per min for customer services, you now get a normal number to phone, just like o2 offline customers.

The network has most certainly improved over the years, i have seen this first hand.”

You are obviously not a regular texter seeing as you havent experienced a single problem with sending or receiving a text message.

Your theory on there being more DS'ers on O2 than any other network is unfounded just like most of your theories. This shows Vodafone and T-Mobile are way ahead in the number of subscribers but to this day i have yet to see a thread here which complains of a text not getting through etc on either of the two networks.

You may think otherwise but i have nothing futher to add to this debate

Period.
Garyo2
03-01-2006
Originally Posted by JJ_:
“
You are obviously not a regular texter seeing as you havent experienced a single problem with sending or receiving a text message.”

I don't use text messaging at all personally in my own time (if i can get away with it), in fact it is rare i use a mobile phone out of work. Just as an aside my T-Mobile phone wouldn't make a call at 11.58 on new years eve, however this is to be expected so I am not going to beat their door down. However, i am surrounded by thousands of people every day who do use mobile phones and SMS and relay information to me about how well the services (not just from o2 but all other networks) not to mention I can see information about o2's SMS service that people who do not work for o2 cannot.

As a percentage of calls o2 get, SMS issues attribute to a very SMALL proportion of the calls through to customer services. On this forum it is made out that this is a big problem. If this is the case, why is no-one letting o2 know, and why are its staff not feeding the information back!!

Originally Posted by JJ_:
“
Your theory on there being more DS'ers on O2 than any other network is unfounded just like most of your theories. This shows Vodafone and T-Mobile are way ahead in the number of subscribers but to this day i have yet to see a thread here which complains of a text not getting through etc on either of the two networks.”

My theories, hmm. Didn't realise I had many of them. Well I am not sure how you can ascertain that more or less members of DS forum use the o2 network by quoting OUT OF DATE subscriber information which has nothing really to do with a Digital Spy snapshop audience. The information you have quoted is 1 MILLION!!! subscribers short for o2. Vodafone have over 200k more customers than that too. I don't think the base for T-Mobile is as large as your information suggest either, however DT have not released their user base in the last couple of months.

The reason I gave this as a possibility is because the o2 free sims have been distributed using the web for many years. However other networks have not gone the same route (until recently). This means that many experienced internet users have probably had o2 sims, because of this possibility it is overly possible that the complaints on this forum don't give a fair cross sectional representation of a network. Obviously users of such forums as Digital Spy are internet aware and would usually be a more advanced user than a usual 'Joe'


Originally Posted by JJ_:
“You may think otherwise but i have nothing futher to add to this debate

Period.”

Is that two full stops at the end? What is the point stating someone else is wrong if you are not prepared to back it up? If you have nothing further to add then your reasons obviously cannot be justified.
barker71
06-01-2006
Well ive been reading this thread with much interest and here is what i think.

I have been on ever network apart from tmobile and 02 is the only one to have supposedly localised problems.

Texts fail, say they have sent once and get recieved 3 times by the recipitant things like that. I did report the problems to 02 many times and were told oh there arent any problems... well i think you will find that there are. Hence everyone in my area is now on orange.So explain to my why (gary02) that every other network apart from yours can cope with the demand in the local area. Seems like un investment to me.

Paul
Garyo2
06-01-2006
Originally Posted by barker71:
“Well ive been reading this thread with much interest and here is what i think.

I have been on ever network apart from tmobile and 02 is the only one to have supposedly localised problems.

Texts fail, say they have sent once and get recieved 3 times by the recipitant things like that. I did report the problems to 02 many times and were told oh there arent any problems... well i think you will find that there are. Hence everyone in my area is now on orange.So explain to my why (gary02) that every other network apart from yours can cope with the demand in the local area. Seems like un investment to me.

Paul”

Previous to working for o2 i worked for (one2one)T-Mobile. T-Mobile also have occasional problems with SMS, so i am perplexed how people say other networks don't have problems as it is obvious people are not telling the truth. Infact EVERY network at some time or another will have problems with SMS. SMS is an unguaranteed medium on all networks. Usually even if the phone says a SMS has failed (and your phone is correctly setup) you will find the SMS has gone through, this is due to the nature of SMS and how the report back system works.

Just for reference a signifcant upgrade was performed on o2 SMSC on the 8th-9th of December 2005.

Ultimately I am not here to argue for any network, certainly not my job to do so. If you are having problems report it to the operator. If you get no joy as to speak to their manager. If many people have problems in your area then something is wrong. IF everyone in your area is defaulting to just one network then it suggests that all the other networks are facing problems, so it could just be you live in a poorly covered area.

I have a feeling that many people have issues once or twice for a couple of hours in a year and then as such brand the network as 'no good' If your sms facility is going down many times you are better off keeping a record of time and dates.
WordLife
06-01-2006
Originally Posted by barker71:
“Well ive been reading this thread with much interest and here is what i think.

I have been on ever network apart from tmobile and 02 is the only one to have supposedly localised problems.

Texts fail, say they have sent once and get recieved 3 times by the recipitant things like that. I did report the problems to 02 many times and were told oh there arent any problems... well i think you will find that there are. Hence everyone in my area is now on orange.So explain to my why (gary02) that every other network apart from yours can cope with the demand in the local area. Seems like un investment to me.

Paul”

i disagree fully...

O2 where i am is 1000% problem free, SMS always send and never fail, calls always get through and never drop. The signal is always full (same for all other networks). The only time we have problems here is New Year but that's to be expected.
<<
<
2 of 2
>>
>
VIEW DESKTOP SITE TOP

JOIN US HERE

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Hearst Corporation

Hearst Corporation

DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK

© 2015 Hearst Magazines UK is the trading name of the National Magazine Company Ltd, 72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP. Registered in England 112955. All rights reserved.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Complaints
  • Site Map