O2 outage ends: no compensation offered

In the wake of a 17-plus hour network outage, that left millions of O2 customers unable to make calls, texts or use the internet, in a statement to the BBC O2 representatives confirmed they will not be offering compensation to those effected.

The outages were first reported on O2's website at 12:50am when a message went up reading, "We've got a problem that means you can't make calls, use the internet, or send/get texts and emails in parts of East London, North London, east Sussex and Kent".

Similarly to the outages suffered by Vodafone in February -- where a Vodafone station in Basingstoke was targeted -- the outage was reportedly caused by a group of thieves targeting one of O2's operations sites. The repair work was supposedly made more difficult through certain as yet undisclosed acts of vandalism.

Service for some O2 customers resumed as early as 4:30pm, though it is unclear when full service resumed, or how many of the network providers 22 million customers were effected.

Being the second "well organised" targeted attack on a network providers operations site this year, it seems that thieves have cottoned onto the fact that such sites contain millions of pounds worth of specialist equipment ripe for the taking. Whether this realisation will lead to future incidents for other network providers remains to be seen.