Vodafone service wiped out by theft

Vodafone users across the south have been affected by a loss of service since last night (Sunday)

THOUSANDS of Vodafone customers have no service this morning (Monday) after equipment was stolen from one of its data centres in Basingstoke last night.

The company has refused to confirm how many users were affected or how long the service would be down for, although Vodafone users have suggested that the loss of service is affecting large parts of the south east and south west.

Many Vodafone users have experienced no signal on their mobile phones, while others have been able to make calls.

Vodafone spokesman Richard Wray said at 10am this morning: “We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, SMS and internet services. We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers' data.”

He refused to give any more information about the loss of service or when it would be restored.

Individual Vodafone customers have been affected while others haven't, depending on their contract and telephone number rather than geographic areas.

The internet is abuzz with rumour and complaints over the service disruptions, with some people claiming that as many as 3.2 million Vodafone customers have been affected.

One of the more colourful comments on Twitter read: “Joke going round is that Vodafone can't contact their engineers... as they're all on Vodafone!”

According to Vodafone's own forums, people have been affected in West Berkshire, Hampshire, Crowthorne and Devon.

Update - 12.42pm

The company says that 2G and 3G phone calls are operational again, but that SMS and voicemail services should be restored in the next few hours.

Further updates will follow.