Not the first time Ericsson responsible for O2 outages, but who is really to blame?

[#1]

Back in 2012, Ericsson was held responsible for 2 different O2 outages in about 4 months. O2 stated that they were removing the offending Ericsson equipment, and ending their relationship with Ericsson entirely. However, as the second link below shows, they simply replaced it with dodgy equipment from the same company.

So today we have another outage that has been apparently caused by the same company, Ericsson. But after many outages caused by Ericsson's equipment or software, and pledges to replace them with another supplier, the blame for this latest fiasco should lie squarely with O2, and they should not be allowed to pass the buck yet again.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/oct/17/02-out-ericsson-network-failure

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2218312/o2-retains-ericsson-s-services-despite-blaming-it-...

[#2]

If this continues much longer I will be looking for another provider!

[#3]

Given how widespread Ericsson's software is (at that level of the network, you use either Ericsson or Nokia), it would be a minor miracle if they hadn't been involved in previous incidents.

The bigger issue though is that no responsible network operator would apply such a software update without first testing it on a test system away from live customer accounts. What happened to that testing?

[#4]

@lordvincent i didnt know that thanks for sharing the information.

O2 should go with a different provider

[#5]

@lordvincent
absolutely spot on.. there mate..

o2 is even more at fault this time around..

i'm sure o2 milked ericsson royally then in 2012.. and will do the same again this time around..

it's time for o2 to switch to nokia.. as now it seems huawei in not an option..

or o2 risks losing millions of customers to rival networks..

i'm seriously contemplating switching providers.. i'm sure many others are too

[#6]

I do agree that they have a systemic problem here... Both software and hardware. Apparently they have old software and hardware that they are in the process of replacing. Think they should have done this a little more carefully and planned it a little better! 🤔.
Anyway, thanks to a lot of media and social media coverage and pressure from all the attention, the service seems to be coming back now due. 🤞🏽😊📱🙂

[#7]

God works in mysterious ways. 

[#8]

will a lawsuit follow ? or are these things insured ?

[#9]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/SoftBank-outage-caused-by-faulty-Ericsson-equipment

It seems the outage was caused by an expired software certificate..facepalms all round..

[#10]

Further reading reveals the problem was caused by an expired security certificate (these are used to certify software is genuine and hasn't been tampered with).

When a certificate expires a system considers it untrustworthy (which is why you sometimes get the problem with site certificate on a browser) and thus might well stop using the functions provided by the software.

It looks like someone forgot to renew the certificate at Ericsson

The delay may have been caused by engineers having to go to each piece of kit to renew the certificate manually or more likely the new certificate will have been obtained and 'seeded' by Ericsson who would have had to wait for the kit to 'phone home' to obtain the new one. (many devices in your home that are connected to the 'net 'phone home' to check for software updates every day or two days without you even knowing it).