Mobile phone customers across the UK were left unable to get online using their handheld devices on Thursday following a UK-wide outage.
O2, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile customers across the country were affected by the problems which hit mobile data services.
Locally, Angus Council’s off-street parking meters, which were controversially reintroduced on November 1, also stopped working as a result of the issues.
The “global software issue” affecting the mobile networks has been traced back to a software issue at Ericsson.
The firm has issued a statement, claiming the problem is the result of “nodes” in its core network, causing knock-on disturbances in several countries.
Ericsson said the problem stemmed from an expired certificate in “two specific software versions of the SGSN–MME” – which has now been “decommissioned” by the company.
>>24 Days of Christmas – Click here for special festive deals from some of our favourite local business
The firm said: “Following network disturbances in a number of Ericsson’s customer networks, Ericsson has taken immediate action to minimise impact and support the restoration of services.
“During December 6 2018, Ericsson has identified an issue in certain nodes in the core network resulting in network disturbances for a limited number of customers in multiple countries using two specific software versions of the SGSN–MME (Serving GPRS Support Node – Mobility Management Entity).
“An initial root cause analysis indicates that the main issue was an expired certificate in the software versions installed with these customers.
“A complete and comprehensive root cause analysis is still in progress. Our focus is now on solving the immediate issues.
“During the course of December 6, most of the affected customers’ network services have been successfully restored.
“We are working closely with the remaining customers that are still experiencing issues.”
President and chief executive of Ericsson Börje Ekholm said: “The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned and we apologize not only to ou
“During December 6 2018, Ericsson has identified an issue in certain nodes in the core network resulting in network disturbances for a limited number of customers in multiple countries using two specific software versions of the SGSN–MME (Serving GPRS Support Node – Mobility Management Entity).
“An initial root cause analysis indicates that the main issue was an expired certificate in the software versions installed with these customers.
“A complete and comprehensive root cause analysis is still in progress. Our focus is now on solving the immediate issues.
“During the course of December 6, most of the affected customers’ network services have been successfully restored.
“We are working closely with the remaining customers that are still experiencing issues.”
President and chief executive of Ericsson Börje Ekholm said: “The faulty software that has caused these issues is being decommissioned and we apologize not only to our customers but also to their customers.
“We work hard to ensure that our customers can limit the impact and restore their services as soon as possible.”
