It seems an obvious enough ploy: all O2 customers were sent an SMS message suggesting they might want to avoid the congestion which normally clogs up the mobile networks come midnight:

02: Happy New Year!
So we're a bit early, but why not join us?
Send your New Year texts early and beat the midnight rush

...which would have been more effective if the message itself hadn’t been caught up in that same congestion; in some cases not arriving until mid-day on the 1st January.

Far be it for us to buck a trend: so Happy New Year for the remaining 362 days of 2007.