O2 network outage hits Herefordshire

"Our technical teams will continue to monitor service performance closely over the next few days to ensure we remain stable", a spokesman said.

One said: "My mobile network has been down all morning so far".

Most network services have now been restored, Ericsson said, with O2 confirming in a statement that its 3G data service is returning and was expected to be restored fully by 9.30pm GMT on Thursday.

The Sky Help team, responding to customer concerns on Twitter, say the problem has been pinpointed and staff are working with O2 to resolve the situation.

Ericsson had said earlier on Thursday it was working with mobile companies in Britain and Japan to restore full service to millions of customers hit by outages caused by a software glitch in the Swedish company's equipment.

"We'd encourage you to use Wi-Fi wherever you can and we are really sorry". The machines have been covered up until the issue is fixed.

The O2 mobile network has suffered a major outage this morning, with the company's data network going down globally, although O2 subscribers could still make calls.

Other operators affected by the Ericsson software blip include Japanese operator SoftBank and GTA TeleGuam. It also affected services that use O2's network, bringing down digital timetables at London bus stops...

Aside from being a huge inconvenience for data-hungry consumers, the O2 network outage is also causing issues for things such as public transportation and daily operations of local businesses.

"As a result of this incident, we are experiencing a high demand on our network which means some customers may have issues making and receiving voice calls".

Attacks against mobile devices are growing more widespread and more sophisticated, requiring companies to adopt new tools, strategies, and best practices to safeguard their data assets.