Homes and businesses without phone and broadband access after ‘malicious’ attack

Homes and businesses across parts of Nottinghamshire were experiencing “significant” problems with phone and broadband services on Monday morning after cables were damaged across the north and east of the county.

Openreach, the BT-owned firm that maintains telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all homes and businesses in the UK, is reporting “criminal damage to a large parts of its network in Nottinghamshire.

Openreach says the damage has been caused by a third party and is alleging “criminal behaviour”.

A spokesperson for Openreach told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Our network has been maliciously damaged in Nottinghamshire, and our engineers are working to replace around 700 metres of cable. They’re working as quickly and safely as they can, but we expect it could take around 48 hours before everyone affected has phone and broadband services fully restored.

“We’re really disappointed that people living and working here are bearing the brunt of criminal behaviour and theft from our network. These attacks cause significant damage and unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk.

“We urge people to call 101 to report any suspicious activity around our network to the Police; if members of the public do believe a crime is in progress then they should dial 999.”