Orange's mobile phone network went on the blink this morning, leaving the trendy operator clutching straws for excuses.

Readers who've called Vulture Central say that the outage appears to be country-wide and that it only appears to be hitting contract mobile phone users.

"We confirm that a small number of Orange customers are currently unable to make or receive call on the Orange network. Our engineers and those of our network equipment suppliers are working to establish the cause of the fault and will restore service as soon as possible," it said.

It also "very much regrets any inconvenience caused". Which is nice. ®