Vodafone break-in causes widespread network outage

Vodafone has suffered a significant network outage after a technical facility in Basingstoke was broken in to and vital equipment stolen on the night of 27 February.

The incident left potentially millions of users without network coverage, and the operator is working to fix the equipment in an effort to restore coverage to the affected areas.

A spokesperson confirmed that the incident cut off all forms of communication on its network, but declined to divulge how many customers were affected nor the location of the incident.

"We had a break-in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment," the spokesperson said.

"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."

The spokesperson reassured customers that the break-in had "no impact on the privacy of customer data".

Vodafone confirmed to V3.co.uk that the incident had occured at a technical centre in Basingstoke and was affecting several hundred thousand customers, but noted that 2G and 3G services had now been restored.

Vodafone also confirmed that a police investigation is ongoing.

Furthermore, an internal Vodafone memo widely circulated online says that the firm is in crisis management mode as it seeks to rectify the situation.

The Vodafone forums appear to show that the outage is affecting a wide area in the Midlands, and that customers in Oxford, Reading, Leicester and Slough are complaining of a lack of coverage.

The scale of the incident will cause embarrassment for Vodafone, and raises questions about the security measures used to protect the firm's key network assets.