Mobile operator and ISP O2 UK has been struck by a major service outage that is affecting East London, North London, Kent and Sussex. The situation began after one of the providers East London based operations sites was hit by vandalism and an organised theft.

The problem, which was first discovered during the early hours of this morning (12:50am), has resulted in customers being unable to make calls, use the internet or send/get texts and emails. However, the situation does appear to vary, with 2G and 3G ( Mobile Broadband ) services being affected differently (depending upon your location).

O2 claims that its "engineers are on site now working to replace the stolen equipment and repair the vandalism", although it couldn't give a precise ETA for the fix. Still, the present plan is to restore the service at some point "today".

The problem is also known to be affecting O2's Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) clients, which includes several business ISPs and popular operators like GiffGaff.