In a report drafted by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, the scandal - which is in the process of spreading to other newspapers, the government and senior police managers - blames the issue on a breakdown in communications between the police and cellcos.
This, says the report, led to a situation where mobile phone users were not told that their voicemail might have been illegally accessed until two years after the responsible journalist in the case was jailed.
The report goes on to say that, back in 2006, the lines of communications between the police and the mobile phone operators meant that the voicemail hacking issues were not being followed up properly.
"The companies cannot escape criticism completely. Neither Vodafone nor Orange UK/T-Mobile UK showed the initiative of O2 in asking the police whether such contact would interfere with investigations", notes the report.
"Vodafone at least sent out generalised reminders about security, (Orange UK and T-Mobile UK may not even have done this), they tightened their procedures, but they made no effort to contact the customers affected", the report adds.
And here's where it gets interesting, as the report says that only 170 people have been notified that they have been a victim of voicemail hacking, but adds there may be up to 12,800 further victims:
"We note with some alarm the fact that only 170 people have as yet been informed that they may have been victims of hacking. If one adds together those identified by name, the number of landlines and the number of mobile phone numbers identified (and we accept that there may be some overlap in these), that means up to 12,800 people may have been affected all of whom will have to be notified", says the report.
"We accept that there are a number of reasons why progress may have been slow so far, but at this rate it would be at least a decade before everyone was informed", it adds.
The report goes on to say that this timeframe is clearly absurd, and recommends that more resources need to be made available to shorten this timeframe.
"We understand that in the current situation of significant budget and staff reductions, this is very difficult. However, we consider that the government should consider making extra funds available specifically for this investigation - not least because any delay in completing it will seriously delay the start of the public inquiry announced by the Prime Minister", the report notes.