Member Article

O2 Network Issues Evidence of Technology Overload?

The recent debacle faced by O2 regarding their Network problems posed the question that should have been asked long ago: Is Technology moving too fast? Although little has been revealed about what caused O2’s entire network to go down, the firm has narrowed it down to an internal issue with regards to registering new telephone numbers. O2 plan to deliver 4G services in a year’s time, but why would customers want to buy into this is they cannot even deliver basic 2G and 3G services?

This all begs the questions of is technology moving at an unnecessary rate. O2 look to have taken their eye of the ball by concentrating on future plans whilst failing to maintain their current practices; suggesting they want to keep level with the competition. However by doing this it has only hindered their long term prospects.

An ever increasing amount of companies are looking further into the future and how they can use new and impending technologies to support their company. Let’s be honest, Mobile Internet is not even necessary. It is a luxury that was developed by one company and took off. But we survived without it before. Because of the way technology has rapidly developed, it is almost certain that people could not go back to mobile phones without the Internet now.

The Destructive Cycle

The rapid expansion of technology is part of a destructive cycle on smaller companies:

Technology get more expensive and developed on a continuous basis -> meaning only the bigger companies can afford the latest technologies -> so businesses are less inclined to use smaller companies if their technology is not as advanced -> resulting in them losing money and not making as much; in turn leading to administration and collapse of the business -> meaning more business for the bigger companies who earn more and can pay for such technology development -> leading back to more developed and more expensive technology.

The technology industry may be stuck in this cycle now, causing severe consequences to some of the smaller businesses out there. I fully acknowledge there are people and businesses out there that prefer to support smaller and more local suppliers. Unfortunately I do not see this being a thing of the future. In correlation with the world becoming technology obsessed, people and businesses are consumed by money. Although businesses look to make money, they are just as open to the idea of saving money; meaning that local supplier you are happy with for charging that little bit more all of a sudden becomes unappealing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Elvis .