Updated Power problems at Telehouse have also caused problems for ISPs other than PlusNet - clara.net and sister ISPs Netscalibur and U-net are also having troubles.

A statement on clara.net's website said many services had been switched away from Telehouse, but some DSL services and email servers were still down.

Telehouse sent us the following statement:

We have a power distribution problem within the Telehouse TFM 6 room from approximateley 08:18 this morning.

One of the 2 power distribution units (PDU 2) in this room has suffered from a power failure to one of the 3 phase outputs caused by a burnt-out cable connection. Customer power connections from L1 phase are at present unavailable from this specific PDU.

We have prepared a power work-around. Unfortunately in order to bring this work-around into service we will have to isolate PDU 2 completely for a few minutes.

This action will cause the remaining 2 phases, L2 and L3, to be affected by a short duration power outage.

We plan to carry out this emergency action at 12:00 today.

This action does not affect any power supplies connected to the PDU 1 fitted in this room where duplicated power supplies are derived for certain customer power services.

Clara.net managing director Steve Rawlinson told us: "Telehouse suffered a power failure on one of its three phases. They were going to power down at 12.00 but that's been put back to 12.30 so customers can switch off their kit."

Update:Brian Trevaskiss, marketing manager at PlusNet, sent us the following statement: "In total half of our customers lost connectivity for 6 hours (8am to 2pm)

We have had all of our services restored following the maintenance work performed by Telehouse North's engineers.

We are continuing to experience problems with our telephone system, which is still undergoing emergency maintenance.

If any customers are unable to connect to the internet, this is likely to be owing to the large number of customers trying to reconnect at the same time. We would recommend that they power down their equipment and then try again approximately 15 minutes later." ®