Is it possible to get hold of the networks technical department via customer services

[rp_yorkshire]

Is it at all possible to get in contact with any of the technical networks people within O2 who might know what is really going on with the 3G switch off?

I tried asking about the 3G switch-off in an O2 high street shop, and they claimed that if I ring customer services then the services phone line would give me a direct email for the networks department to ask my questions. Is this true? I'd sooner ask on here than spend hours on a phone call.

If it is true then might someone on here be able to tell me of a direct email contact (via personal message on this forum if you don't want to publish that address on the browsable pages).

I still can't find out quite what is going on with the switch off in particular:

VoLTE and PAYG, it seems utterly bizarre that O2 provides VoLTE only on the contract SIM cards. PAYG is for people who make little use of phones, in particular people who use SMS and calls and negligible if any data. Without VoLTE once 3G/2G is gone then PAYG SIMs would still get 4G data, but would not get any voice calls and maybe not SMS either. Does O2 plan to change something in the near future here? Or does "PAYG" not actually mean the SIM itself, but rather the exact tariff one sets it to run on via the O2 website, if one sets it to a monthly bundle depleting £5 from the balance per month in exchange for unlimited calls/SMS, even though the SIM was sold as PAYG "hardware" does it get VoLTE nonetheless? Has anyone with a PAYG SIM and using a bundle observed this, does your device stay on 4G (stay on it entirely, no supplemenrtary use of 3G or 2G briefly activated during a call) when voice calling? Does this differ if you use a balance-depleted-per-minute-of-talk-time tariff, in which case you do observe 4G being dropped during a call??

Restrictions on 2G usage, is this happening at the same time as the 3G switch off or a while later? My understanding is that this is NOT happening for the Durham test switch-off, atleast most webpages say that old phones/old SIMS which don't support 4G will all still get SMS and voice calls, but not data within the affected area. The guy in the shop said though that it was simultaneous, he claimed 2G gets limited to only smart meters and IoT usage at the same time as 3G goes off, but then either that would mean every 2G/3G phone in Durham will stop making calls in April, or that the test-case for Durham is not actually a test of what will be rolled out to the rest of the country later (in the situation that Durham keeps 2G unrestricted when 3G goes off, but then when the whole country starts with the 3G switch-off then 2G would be restricted at the same time)?

And there's some national scale 2G related change taking in effect in April too, something which O2 is apparently sending out texts about to affected MUCH OLDER SIMs (handset age irrelevant here). I haven't seen any such text, but my SIM is pretty old, older than my handset. Does anyone know if there is actually a specific year for which older SIM cards need replacing and newer ones can hang on until the 3G switch off (or so long as it is later the 2G restricting) comes nationally? Just wondering whether given my SIM's age (2011) I might be due one of these texts but it hasn't reached me? What is the cutoff year? 2010? 2005? 2015?

Is there any way to ask this triple-question of someone technical within the department who actually manage the operations of the network infrastructure who actually knows what is going on here?

Thank you

[Bambino]

@rp_yorkshire All ways to contact O2 can be found here: 

How to find help & contact O2: A Guide - O2 Community

[Enlli]

I've never known anyone get a direct line to technical and I seriously doubt anyone in customer services would know anything about 3G switch off.

At the moment calls and text will still go via 2G. Yes, the long term aim is to move people off that too, but not yet.

I've been through two 3G switch offs first with Vodafone and then with Three, both still have usable 2G  In fact I recently made a call on Vodafone when the phone was showing E 

The question we have unanswered is regarding O2 PAYG and VoLTE and again we cannot find out their intentions. giffgaff offer it with PAYG and it maybe they move people in that direction

But don't expect anything more from O2 than that which they have published

[pgn]

VMO2's support pages in this context are scant, and devoid of a contact point to boot:

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/network-coverage-and-international/3g-switch-off

Help on that page goes down a wormhole, but does offer:

• Email: You can email the Access For You Team on accessforyou@o2.com

Granted, for Vulnerable customers, but perhaps more inclined to help explain or have access to better resources than the normal CS team?

Also:

• Write to us: Telefónica UK Limited, Correspondence Team, PO BOX 694, Winchester, SO23 5AP.

Finally, registering for this service may help keep you notified of network changes in areas important to you, @rp_yorkshire -

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