Thanks to CaptnSpaulding in the forums for doing some great detective work and finding in the EU Playstation forums a message by community team leader, Elixor

Quoted from the Google translate version of the page, or see the original page in French here

– ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW –

A maintenance PLAYSTATION Network is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday 14 October 2008). Tuesday October 14 at 21:00

Wednesday October 15 at 02:00 During this maintenance you can not connect to PLAYSTATION Network.

If you are connected before you should be able to play online without problem. Thank you for your understanding.

Rumours are abound this is in preparation for FW v2.50, some rumours go further and suggest Home is making an unexpected early appearance