Looking forward to when even more transport, and self driving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.
--
Roland Perry

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self driving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 14:32:39 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self driving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

In message , at 14:53:04 on Thu, 6 Dec
2018, remarked:

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Dual-SIM, or domestic roaming, for applications such as this are a bit
of a challenge. Normally what users are looking for is redundancy if one
or two masts fail, not if the whole network fails.
--
Roland Perry

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self driving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:23:22 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:53:04 on Thu, 6 Dec
2018, remarked:

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Dual-SIM, or domestic roaming, for applications such as this are a bit
of a challenge. Normally what users are looking for is redundancy if one
or two masts fail, not if the whole network fails.

Its a reasonably important service so having dual sims should really have
been in the design. Ditto down at gatwick where - inexplicably - they dumped
a wired link from the control tower for a phone network data link to power
their information screens. Which then went down recently. Whatever shiny
suited salesmen sold them that pup was probably laughing all the way to the
wine bar after that.

Looking forward to when even more transport, and selfdriving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

Roland Perry wrote:
"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

I don't think that TfL regards the Countdown displays on bus stops as a
high priority system. In fact, I didn't think it was being rolled out any
further, and may have a limited life. TfL would rather passengers used
their phones to get the data.

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self drivingcars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:52:18 +0000 (UTC), wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:23:22 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:53:04 on Thu, 6 Dec
2018, remarked:

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Dual-SIM, or domestic roaming, for applications such as this are a bit
of a challenge. Normally what users are looking for is redundancy if one
or two masts fail, not if the whole network fails.

Its a reasonably important service

I'm not convinced it is. While it's very nice to know when the next bus
is along the vast majority of London bus routes are frequent enough that
you can just wait for a while for the next to turn up.

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self drivingcars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On 06/12/2018 17:07, David Walters wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:52:18 +0000 (UTC), wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:23:22 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:53:04 on Thu, 6 Dec
2018, remarked:

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Dual-SIM, or domestic roaming, for applications such as this are a bit
of a challenge. Normally what users are looking for is redundancy if one
or two masts fail, not if the whole network fails.

Its a reasonably important service

I'm not convinced it is. While it's very nice to know when the next bus
is along the vast majority of London bus routes are frequent enough that
you can just wait for a while for the next to turn up.

And the screens are not available anyway on many (majority of?) stops
across the whole TfL area.

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self drivingcars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On 06/12/2018 17:58, MikeS wrote:
On 06/12/2018 17:07, David Walters wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:52:18 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:23:22 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:53:04 on Thu, 6 Dec
2018, remarked:

"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been
affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have
stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to
use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working
with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
Â*Â*Â* [Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

Obviously a backup link wasn't in the spec. Nice one TfL.

Dual-SIM, or domestic roaming, for applications such as this are a bit
of a challenge. Normally what users are looking for is redundancy if
one
or two masts fail, not if the whole network fails.

Its a reasonably important service

I'm not convinced it is. While it's very nice to know when the next bus
is along the vast majority of London bus routes are frequent enough that
you can just wait for a while for the next to turn up.

And the screens are not available anyway on many (majority of?) stops
across the whole TfL area.


more than 19,000 stops;
2,500 Countdown signs;
TfL not paying for more due to lack of funds; but
you can pay for your own if you want to and have a site! See
https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2018_02_00_appx_c._countdown_pamphlet.pdf

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self drivingcars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On 06/12/2018 16:48, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
"Tracker systems which rely on the O2 network have also been affected by
the outage, meaning countdown screens at London bus stops have stopped
working.

Screens which normally display the predicted arrival time of buses
across the capital are now blank.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We're sorry that customers are unable to use
our Countdown screens at bus stops for live travel information.

This is a result of a nationwide O2 data outage. We are working with our
service provider to resolve this as soon as possible."

ps Actually, it's more likely that O2 working with *its* provider
[Ericsson] will get this thing resolved.

I don't think that TfL regards the Countdown displays on bus stops as a
high priority system. In fact, I didn't think it was being rolled out any
further, and may have a limited life. TfL would rather passengers used
their phones to get the data.

Citymapper was working fine today as usual (unless you had an O2 phone of course).

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Looking forward to when even more transport, and self driving cars, rely on 24x7 data connectivity
 

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 17:07:06 +0000, David Walters
wrote:

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 15:52:18 +0000 (UTC), wrote:
Its a reasonably important service

I'm not convinced it is. While it's very nice to know when the next bus
is along the vast majority of London bus routes are frequent enough that
you can just wait for a while for the next to turn up.

Not essential, but I think a more important requirement of the system
is for the bus operators and TfL to know where the buses are. And if
the buses are also using O2... Certainly there was no real-time for
my bus this morning. There's no reason for the two suppliers to be
the same, but it looks like they might be.

Even so, time between failures of telecomms networks is usually - or
should be - measured in decades.

Richard.