Cable Damage Knocks Out Broadband for BT and TalkTalk UK Users

Customers of both BT and TalkTalk’s broadband ISP and phone network appear to be suffering from a “total loss of service” this week after a series of possible cable damage or theft events cut connectivity to thousands of homes around various parts of the United Kingdom.

The service status page for BT reports that “suspected Cable Thefts & damage caused by 3rd parties” has resulted in a loss of telephone and or broadband services to various areas around the UK, although the operator claims that it only impacts a “small number” of their customers (this strongly depends upon how they define “small”).

Areas Affected by BT Cable Theft and Damage

Larne – 028286,0282827

Llandovery – 01550

Bishops Waltham – 014898

Wrexham – 01978

Affected area: London

Grove Park – 02032, 02088, 02082, 02084

Faraday – 0201, 0203, 0207 (estimated restore date 21/11/12).

Hatfield Woodhouse – 01302 (estimated restore date 16/11/2012).

London Sidcup 02032, 02083, 02082, 02089 (estimated restore date 19/11/2012).

North Benfleet- 012685, 012687 (estimated restore date 19/11/2012)

Binbrook – 01472 (estimated restore date 23/11/2012)

Separately TalkTalk are also suffering from a major network fault that hit parts of Northern England (Northumberland, Gateshead, County Durham and Darlington) and other telephone exchange areas including Newport, Ardrossan, Newquay, Bedford, Kettering and Whitburn. In both cases most of the problems began on Monday and are continuing to impact residents and businesses within the affected areas.

As with BT these TalkTalk problems are being put down to “cable damage” of some sort and BTOpenreach engineers are attending. TalkTalk’s networking department has apparently told customers whom enquired that “some core links may have failed” but this may or may not be related as there are several separate on-going problems.

As a side note TalkTalks service status page also reports that several other areas have been hit by similar cable damage (Wallsend, Holywell, Lowestoft, East Exchange, Grove Park, Hampton, Erdington and Salisbury), yet some of the above reports have been open since the end of October last month and continue to be labelled as “in progress“.