UPDATED: O2 network hit with outage

O2 customers faced yet another day of troubles as the provider reported unexpected issues' affecting its network.

The company posted a status update at 12:50am this morning saying it was experiencing problems in North London, East London, East Sussex and Kent, meaning users were unable to make calls, use the internet or send and receive emails.

At the time of publication the status of the issue was declared as "ongoing."

Social networks were soon buzzing with people complaining about the issues. IT PRO discovered users further a field than O2's stated areas were also affected, such as in Essex, Liverpool and Oxfordshire.

Twitter user @JustKimmyO_o wrote: "What's happening?! I can't seem to use my phone. People are saying it's just in London, but me and a few others from The Midlands are also having the same problem!"

O2 said it was experiencing network issues at a site in Essex, affecting the areas listed on its service status website, but did not note any other regions or detail what caused the outage.

"Engineers [are] working to fix it now," the spokesperson said.

O2 became renowned for network outages when it began selling the iPhone.

As the exclusive carrier for the Apple iPhone for two years, its network folded under the pressure on more than one occasion due to the huge demand for data, leaving customers frustrated.

We will keep you updated with information on this story as it unfolds.

UPDATE: IT PRO has just received a statement from O2 claiming the issues on its network were caused by criminal damage.

A spokesperson said: "We continue working hard to address the issue affecting services in parts of N and E London, Kent and E Sussex. This was caused by theft and vandalism at one of our operations sites in E London."

"We sincerely apologise to affected customers and will update progress regularly."

It is not the first network to suffer as a result of crime. Back in February, a Vodafone technical facility in Basingstoke, Hampshire, was broken into and equipment stolen - leading to the network failing for potentially 100,000s of customers.

O2 is yet to confirm when it expects the network to be fully operational again.