Vodafone's pager network - which is used by hospitals and businesses in the UK to stay in touch - went titsup early this morning after thieves stole key networking equipment overnight.

Although details are still sketchy, the break-in occurred in the early hours of this morning at an undisclosed address in Hertfordshire.

Thieves made off with "key bits of equipment" and also damaged remaining hardware as they ripped out the kit.

As a result, Vodafone's paging network - which is used by 180,000 people and covers 98 per cent of the UK population - was floored. Engineers managed to get the network back on its feet by early this afternoon.

"We take this extremely seriously and are investigating the matter," said a spokesman. ®

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