O2 UK Outage Triggers Mobile Roaming and Compensation Debate

One positive outcome of last week’s O2 network outage (here) is that it has triggered a debate about whether mobile operators should introduce Automatic Compensation, like broadband ISPs will soon receive. On top of that others have called for more roaming flexibility, so users can use rival networks during downtime.

Let us start the ball rolling with the question of Automatic Compensation. Next year all of the UK market’s major fixed line broadband and phone providers will be introducing a new system to compensate consumers (cash or bill credits) for a total loss of connectivity (i.e. if the outage lasts longer than 2 working days), missed appointments or delayed installs (details).

The system is contentious for a number of reasons, not least of which is its high cost and the inevitable price rises that such a service will bring (some ISPs may already be preparing for it by doing multiple hikes within a single 12 month period). Nevertheless many consumers will be very happy with such a system, particularly as in a lengthy outage it could conceivably pay out far more than the cost of your service rental.

On Friday the consumer magazine Which? began emailing some of their members to propose that the system should also be extended to include Mobile Network Operators (e.g. O2, Three UK, Vodafone, EE and possibly also their MVNO partners).

Which?’s Email to Members

If you were one of them, you probably spent the day quite rightly angry and frustrated. Your mobile phone is such an integral part of being able to live and work, so it is very worrying that one of the world’s biggest mobile networks failed.

We’re calling on O2 and affected providers to put their customers first and ensure no-one is left out of pocket by the widespread outage. We’re also calling on the regulator Ofcom to seriously look into automatic compensation for the mobile phone sector.

In fairness some of this debate is perhaps a touch too premature, not least since major mobile outages tend to be quite rare and there doesn’t appear to be an endemic issue within the industry. Likewise it’s important to stress the difference between network outages and the impact of weak signal coverage, which are not the same thing even though it may sometimes seem like it (a big challenge for any compensation system).

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, did in fact consider this as part of their related consultation in 2017. At the time they ruled that such issues with mobile operators were naturally very complex to assess (coverage is tricky, especially indoors or underground) and that only less than 1% of people were likely to lose their service for more than 24 hours.

Crucially mobile operators were also found to give better compensation than fixed line providers.

Ofcom’s March 2017 Position on Mobile Compensation

“We considered whether automatic compensation should be paid to mobile consumers who experience delayed repair for loss of service. From the information made available to us, we assessed that the number of consumers likely to lose their mobile service for more than 24 hours is low. Furthermore, compensation payments to mobile consumers are currently greater than those to broadband and landline consumers.

Taking into account our findings, there was insufficient evidence to suggest that consumers are currently receiving inadequate redress for the harm caused when they lose mobile service. We therefore did not consider that requiring mobile providers to pay automatic compensation for delayed repair of mobile loss of service was justified.”

All of this is supported by the fact that mobile operator O2 and some of their Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) partners have already moved to compensate customers in various different ways, although it will be interesting to see whether last week’s situation results in a change of stance from politicians and or Ofcom.

In the meantime the regulator is instead working to further improve mobile network coverage, such as via the new obligations that will come attached to next year’s auction of the 700MHz band (here).

Internal Roaming

Alternatively Grant Shapps (Conservative MP) and his outspoken cross-party British Infrastructure Group (BIG) has proposed a different approach, the idea of “internal roaming.” Essentially they believe mobile users should be allowed to roam freely onto a rival operator’s network, albeit only if their own network is suffering from a major outage.

Shapps claims to have investigated this idea with mobile operators and he told The Telegraph that “there were no real barriers to introducing it, it was just that they didn’t really fancy doing it … [it is] not acceptable to have no backup plan. Ministers should order an immediate investigation into network sharing in emergencies.”

The group claimed that at present foreign visitors get better coverage, as mobile roaming means they are not tied to any provider and can thus use the strongest signal. In fairness it’s not always that simple and sometimes roaming partnerships exist between specific operators, which can still run into problems if one of the default partners is suffering from a major outage when you arrive.

The main challenge here is likely to reflect a mix of commercial competition between operators and the difficulty / cost of developing such a system, which unlike normal roaming would only be introduced during major outages. The other problem with this is that it would suddenly shift a huge capacity burden onto rivals that may not be prepared, thus resulting in a reduced service for all customers, network instability or higher costs for end-users as they adapt.

Meanwhile, in a really bad situation, end-users can already go out and purchase a temporary pay-as-you-go SIM for a rival network, although this is a bit fiddly. As with the proposal for automatic compensation, the question may come down to whether or not such outages are common enough to warrant a major shift in approach. Existing evidence suggests not, but that view may change.

Time for a snap poll..

And another one..