Millions speechless as Israeli cellular network collapses

By Wednesday evening, around 10 hours after the Cellcom network first collapsed, the problem had not been fixed. A statement on the company's website, signed by company CEO Amos Shapira, apologized for the "serious fault".

Shapira told a news conference in Tel Aviv that "this is the worst technical problem since the founding of the company" in 1994. He said that he could not say if it would take hours or even days to fix.

According to the Jerusalem Post daily, angry and anxious customers lined up at Cellcom service centres throughout Israel. At one centre in Tel Aviv, the manager brought in extra security guards to protect his employees from disgruntled customers, the Post said.

Many of the network's users vented their frustration via the Twitter social networking service, with some of them giving the Cellcom instructions and advice peppered with four-lettered words.

Others managed to find humour in the situation.

"Somebody at Cellcom forgot to pay their electricty bill," one opined, while another simply Tweeted "Happy Cellcom Day."

The network outrage led the television evening news, and one anchor could not resist noting that what was newsworthy about the Leader of the Opposition texting on her mobile phone while the Prime Minister was addressing parliament, was the fact that she had cellular reception.

Mobile telephones have become a way of life with Israelis, to the point where a popular comedy troupe once did a skit about a man being accused of showing off - because he did not own a cellphone.