The Failure of a Mobile Network, Known as O2

After my last “Three” contract ended in September 2022, I switched between a few ultra-budget mobile plans from Lebara and Lyca. Originally, after leaving Three, I got a sim with Lyca with Unlimited calls and texts with 15GB data for £2.45/30 days.

However, even though Lyca (using o2) was consistent when it worked. One local site (covering a massive amount of countryside) went down for weeks without an update.

Moved to Lebara after that month, which had its own Vodafone related issues (Went down for 15 minutes a few times and randomly dropping to 2G in a “strong 4G” area).

However, that deal (just like Lyca) only lasts 6 months before the price hikes. Which meant I had to move back to Lyca…….

Lyca as a MVNO of o2 gives me a good idea of the coverage and performance of its network. When I first used Lyca between September and October 2022, apart from that non-working tower, the network was relatively consistent (Around 10Mbits in the Countryside and 20-30Mbits in Urban places).

Returning after 6 months, it is obvious how far The O2 network has fallen.

In the countryside, I am often seeing the connection dropping to sub-1Mbits 3G in areas meant to have equivalent 4G coverage and when 4G is available, it’s mostly around 5Mbits….

Often I was struggling to stream Audio over their 3G network as it was so slow….

At least the countryside is consistent when 4G actually connects (50% speed drop in 6 months, but consistent). “When” being the word, as I often was connected to 3G in 4G areas….

What a crap mobile network.

Published: 7th May 2023