UPDATE2 Storm Causes Broadband and Power Problems in South UK

The St Jude’s Day storm, which has this morning crashed its way across the southern and midlands region of England and Wales (United Kingdom), has so far left over 200,000 homes without power and an unknown number have also lost their broadband and telephone connectivity. Not to mention mass travel disruption.

The storm battered some areas with hurricane force winds that in places gusted up to 99mph (Isle of Wight). Naturally this has resulted in significant disruption, felling trees and telegraph poles across the area. A few spells of localised flooding have done little to help matters.

At this early stage we still don’t know the full extent of the damage but a few ISPs have already noticed a decline in broadband connections, which appears to be focused on the southern half of England where the storm hit hardest of all. Many of these issues are likely to be linked to power supply problems and damaged cables.

More as we get it..

UPDATE 10:55am

A spokesperson for BT’s Consumer and Business division told ISPreview.co.uk that the situation wasn’t as bad as feared, although “a number of exchanges are relying on generators as normal power has been lost in several areas.”

UPDATE 12:08pm

Cable operator Virgin Media informs that its network has managed to escape fairly unscathed, which is largely due to most of it being built underground. The spokesperson also told us that “debris and travel disruption may cause delays for our engineers who are doing their best to get to customers so we ask those waiting for a visit to please bear with us and we apologise if it takes longer than we’d anticipated“.

UPDATE 29th October 2013

BTOpenreach has issued warnings for the following areas where critical repair work will be prioritised over new line provisions.

Openreach ‘Measures Beyond Our Reasonable Control’ Areas
•Cambridge
•Colchester and Ipswich
•Hemel
•Southend
•Romford
•East Downs
•Central Downs
•West Downs (including the Isle of Wight)
•Esher
•Croydon
•Crayford
•Reading
•Maidenhead
•Southampton
•Bournemouth
•Taunton
•Guildford