O2’s network in London and the South East had a major wobble today following a fibre break near one of its switching sites in London.

Customers in London and the South East were treated to "now you see 'em, now you don't" signal bars on their handset screens this morning as the O2 network in the region yo-yo-ed.

The operator has now done a temporary workaround which should mean all its customers have full service.

The disruption couldn’t have come at a worse time, with travellers stranded by a terror alert at the UK’s airports piling extra traffic onto the network.

One reader based in Manchester claimed an O2 operator told him the network was performing "selective disablements”.

An O2 spokesman said the problems are down to a trio of breaks in BT fibres near one of the firm’s sites in Leytonstone, London. Repairing the cables is a delicate job, he said, but the firm hoped to have a better idea later today of when the cables would be repaired.

In the meantime, he said, the company had temporarily rerouted traffic, and all customers should now have full service.

He added that O2’s network issues were totally unconnected to the terror alert which has effectively put air travel in the UK on ice.®

Related stories

Pipex-hosted sites left high and dry by flooding (27 June 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/27/pipex_flooding_problems/
O2 eyes Ice to drive consumer 3G demand (16 August 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/16/o2_preps_ice/
O2 to slash monthly prices (6 July 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/06/new_02_plans/
ComputerLand takes O2 managed services business (22 June 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/06/22/02_computacenter_computerland/
DSGi to flog The Link to O2 (21 June 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/06/21/dsg_link/
O2 says Be mine for £50m (20 June 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/20/o2_be/