Is there a Vodafone outage today? This question resonates across social media platforms and support forums, marking the beginning of a quest for answers among Vodafone customers experiencing disruptions. As a leading telecommunications provider, Vodafone’s network is the backbone of connectivity for millions, weaving a complex tapestry of digital interactions that span calls, texts, and internet services.

Is there a Vodafone outage today?

Residents of major urban centers such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane found themselves unable to obtain signal reception on their mobile devices this Wednesday afternoon, a significant disruption attributed to the fault. The online platform Down Detector, renowned for monitoring disruptions across mobile, internet, banking, and social media services, has confirmed that the telecommunications giant experienced a considerable downturn in services around 4:30 pm.

Vodafone officials have acknowledged the presence of technical difficulties, which precipitated the widespread disruption in mobile functionalities, encompassing both voice calls and internet data. The issue, however, has been addressed.

“Our technical teams have resolved the issue and services are returning to normal. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience, and thank them for their patience.” the spokesperson told 7 News.

Is Vodafone network down now?

While current reports indicate stability, the aftermath of the outage continues to resonate. The Daily Mail highlighted the frustrations vented by customers on social media platforms, illustrating the extent of the disruption. One user lamented on Twitter about her service abruptly switching to “SOS only” before signal strength seemingly recovered, yet the ability to place calls remained elusive:

Yeah… I can’t make calls. Vodafone hasn’t said anything but downdetector online indicates heaps of people with Vodafone are having problems at the moment. A couple of minutes ago my signal went to SOS only …. Back to 4 bars now but still can’t make calls

— Kath Sheeran (@SheeranKath) February 7, 2024

Another user recounted being trapped in a connectivity void during a critical moment, describing the experience as “so bad and ridiculous.” The timing could not have been worse, as she was participating in a pivotal phone screening for a job she was eager to secure, an opportunity marred by the outage.

AI Booster: Google and Vodafone join forces to launch a new platform

By 4:34 pm, the Down Detector website had tallied over 5,000 reports of issues related to mobile phone reception and connectivity, a testament to the scale of the problem. However, in a turn towards recovery, this figure significantly decreased to just 351 reported incidents by 6:34 pm, indicating a move towards resolution and restoring the network’s reliability.

Why is Vodafone not working?

Occasional disruptions in Vodafone’s network operations can stem from a variety of sources, impacting the seamless experience customers have come to expect. These disturbances can be attributed to maintenance activities aimed at upgrading network infrastructure, unforeseen technical glitches within the system, or external factors such as severe weather conditions that affect physical network components.

Additionally, “Is there a Vodafone outage today?” becomes a trending query during large-scale incidents that result in widespread service interruptions, highlighting the need for constant vigilance and rapid response from the network’s technical teams.

Common Vodafone network issues

• Service outages: These are periods when customers experience a complete loss of service, including calls, texts, and data. Outages may be localized or widespread, affecting vast numbers of users across multiple regions.
• Signal strength fluctuations: Users might notice varying signal strengths, ranging from full bars to none within short distances or timeframes, often leading to dropped calls or sluggish data speeds.
• Data connectivity problems: There are instances where, despite having signal strength, users are unable to access the internet, or the data connection speed is frustratingly slow, hampering browsing, streaming, and downloading activities.
• Call drops and interference: An issue characterized by calls being unexpectedly disconnected or plagued with poor audio quality, making communication difficult.
• SMS delivery delays: Sending or receiving text messages may face delays, or messages might not get delivered at all, affecting timely communication.

In addressing these common concerns, Vodafone continuously works on enhancing its network and infrastructure. This commitment involves regular maintenance, upgrading existing technologies, expanding coverage areas, and implementing cutting-edge solutions to bolster network resilience against various challenges. As part of their customer service commitment, Vodafone also provides updates and support through their channels to assist customers during such disruptions, ensuring a return to normalcy as swiftly as possible.

Long story short, is there a Vodafone outage today? Yes, there was a Vodafone outage earlier today, impacting numerous customers. However, the issue has since been resolved, and services have been restored to normal.

Featured image credit: ROBIN WORRALL/Unsplash

A new platform launched by Vodafone and Google called AI Booster aims to handle thousands of ML models a day across 18+ countries.

AI Booster is the result of 18 months of development and is built upon Google’s Vertex AI and integrates with Vodafone’s Neuron platform. When Vodafone began work on AI Booster, Vertex AI and other Google technologies had not yet received official announcements.

AI Booster allows users design, deploy, and scale ML models more quickly

“To maximise business value at pace and scale, our vision was to enable fast creation and horizontal/vertical scaling of use cases in an automated, standardised manner. To do this, 18 months ago we set out to build a next-generation AI/ML platform based on new Google technology, some of which hadn’t even been announced yet.

We knew it wouldn’t be easy. People said, ‘Shoot for the stars and you might get off the ground…’ Today, we’re really proud that AI Booster is truly taking off, and went live in almost double the markets we had originally planned.

Together, we’ve used the best possible ML Ops tools and created Vodafone’s AI Booster Platform to make data scientists’ lives easier, maximise value, and take co-creation and scaling of use cases globally to another level,” stated Cornelia Schaurecker, Global Group Director for Big Data & AI at Vodafone.

Customers can design, deploy, and scale ML models more quickly using a unified platform and pre-trained and customized tooling thanks to Google’s Vertex AI. Data is too valuable to backup traditionally, that is why these kind of collaborations are really important for firms.

“As a technology platform, we’re incredibly proud of building a cutting-edge MLOps platform based on best-in-class Google Cloud architecture with in-built automation, scalability, and security. The result is we’re delivering more value from data science while embedding reliability engineering principles throughout,” stated Ashish Vijayvargia, Analytics Product Lead at Vodafone.

Vodafone and Google emphasized the following four benefits of AI Booster:

• Automated ML lifecycle compliance activities (drift/skew detection, explainability, auditability, etc.) via reusable pipelines, containers, and managed services.
• Embedded security by design.
• Capitalise on Google-native ML tooling using BQML, AutoML, Vertex AI and others.
• Boost adoption through standardised and embedded ML templates.

Vodafone’s data scientists and engineers can now get from proof-of-concept to production in just four weeks rather than the five months it previously took. The next task will be to increase adoption across markets and geographies now that the new technological platform is in place.

The roles, learning, and working styles of individuals are significantly impacted by the changes in technology and processes. Data scientists may now physically click a button to support non-core activities with machines running in the background. In addition to learning new tools to aid them in their work, they can spend time doing what they do best.

Data scientists and ML developers have already begun generating more value and working together on creative solutions thanks to AI Booster. A culture of exploration and learning is being shaped through AI Booster, which is supported by instructor-led and on-demand learning routes with Google Cloud.

“Vodafone’s flourishing relationship with Google Cloud is a vital aspect of our evolution toward becoming a world-leading tech communications company,” said Cengiz Üçbenli, Global Head of Big Data and AI, Innovation, Governance at Vodafone.

In recent years, Vodafone and Google have developed a tight bond. The two businesses expanded their partnership in May 2021 to create a global data platform.

The two businesses created the platform together with the added capability of processing and transporting massive amounts of data internationally from numerous systems into the cloud. Vodafone will use Google Cloud to host its SAP system in addition to “all big data and business intelligence workloads.

“It accelerates our ability to create faster, more scalable solutions to business challenges like improving customer loyalty and enhancing customer experience, whilst keeping Vodafone at the forefront of AI and data science,” Üçbenli added.

Did you know that Google AI’s Pathways Language Model can explain a joke?

This article was originally published on Grit Daily and is reproduced with permission.

One of the more commonly used AI developments is computer vision. Whether it is Google Lens or Pinterest Lens, it is easy to get users to adopt. After all, 1,074 photos are uploaded on Instagram every second – our smartphone cameras are now an extension of our eyes. So with computer vision, all you ask users to do is something that already comes naturally, and the magic happens.

That level of simplicity, and the fact that the tech giants have already adopted it broadly, means it is also harder for startups to create something unique. With Lens baked into most Android devices, creating a new app to identify objects, plants, books, and landmarks is a relatively pointless affair.

So when someone comes along with something that is both easy to use and different, it garners immediate attention.

mce Systems, a mobile device lifecycle management provider, has announced that its latest feature is now available for Android and iOS users on the UK Vodafone network. It targets the $52 billion mobile-device secondary market. While this initial white-labeled solution is being offered in one territory and on one provider, the company has plans to expand.

“The solution is built with a light IT footprint to simplify deployment across any operator’s customer lifecycle and reverse processing partner eco-system,” Liran Weiss, COO and cofounder at mce Systems, told me. “mce’s core markets are in the UK and North America. We are currently in discussion with customers and other major international providers on implementation of this competence.”

So what does it do, and how does it work?

One of the most significant issues in the secondary mobile market is grading the phone. And, in particular, the most critical element – the screen. Smartphone screens are crucial to secondary market buyers, and can even cause anxiety, so having a showroom-quality screen can significantly increase the value of the device. So how do we determine if it is scratched, or has dead pixels?

With mce’s solution, computer vision delivers the answer in seconds. With only the device’s camera and a mirror, users receive an AI-based assessment that is, according to the company, 99-percent accurate, determining the actual value of the device. That takes away the guesswork involved in the process and standardizes the result. Used smartphone prices fluctuate wildly between buyers, as each person is using a different method and not a data-backed approach.

In addition to the screen quality measurement, mce’s solution includes device verification, which checks the smartphone’s authenticity via an authentication code and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, ensuring the user’s device is not blacklisted. And it also has a pixel test. Users select the marked spots on the screen to assess how many of the device’s pixels are dead and determine screen reaction time to the user’s touch.

Importantly, when checking the screen quality, the technology captures the screen and identifies its perimeter while blanking its content to protect user privacy. The app even reminds users to switch off features that might compromise their security – and that of the eventual buyer – such as finding the phone using Android and iOS tracking features.

Each year mobile device manufacturers design new devices, drawing the attention of consumers around the world. Through their mobile operators, smartphone users often trade in their old devices at the operator’s retail locations and receive an upgraded device and a new plan. In the U.S. alone, mobile device users were returned a total value of $2 billion for their trade-ins in 2020, according to a Hyla Mobile report.

By extension, the worldwide consumers’ secondary market for used smartphones is growing and is expected to reach a global value of $65 billion by 2024.

With mce’s new system, users won’t have to go to a brick-and-mortar store to get a valuation, which many welcome, given the current global pandemic. Customers can assess their devices remotely, without the need to visit a mobile operator’s outlet.

In addition to smartphones, mce extends the technology to other devices, such as tablets and laptops.

“The mce platform is built to service any electronic device which retains a high residual second market resale value,” Weiss said.

In an article recently published by the Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that Vodafone and Imperial College in London are working on a new initiative to improve data quality and allow for “bigger and faster traffic” for consumers. By placing small data centers near mobile cell towers – effectively reducing the distance between cell towers and data centers – researchers are looking to see if the UK-based telecom giant can boost “data services to data-hungry consumers.”

Although Vodafone declined to comment on the current stage of testing*, Alexander Wolf, a professor at Imperial’s department of computing, spoke about the potential uses for the technology. One such example Wolf mentioned was to do with a big sporting event or concert:

“If the carrier has an access point near the stadium, then they can think about what images, video and other content they can place there. There will be good response for the tens of thousands of people taking photos and videos and sharing them on social networks, as well as uploading, downloading, and watching videos,” said Mr. Wolf.

“From a technical and hardware point of view, the technology is quite mature. The software to manage it is a bit less mature, so that’s maybe more in the realm of a few years…The consumer is ready for it, but not necessarily the operators.”

With data consumption expected to increase exponentially over the next few years – with experts suggesting a 4300% increase in annual data consumption by 2020 – mobile operators are looking for new, innovative solutions to deal with the explosion of data. By narrowing the gap between the base station, or mobile tower, and the data center carriers could take advantage of “reduced latency, or time lag.”

*Vodafone also declined to comment on whether they are working with Imperial College.

Read more here

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(Image credit: Aidan)