BT Openreach Launch Cable Theft and Damage Report Service for UK ISPs

BTOpenreach has announced that its LIVE cable monitoring system, which proactively notifies broadband ISPs and phone operators about Major Service Outage’s on BT’s national UK telecoms network (specifically those that stem from cable damage or theft), is now out of its long trial and has been made available to ISPs.

The aim of the service, which began its first trials well over a year ago (here and here), is to help ISPs to manage any associated faults that could be impacting their end users. Customers could also benefit from being better informed about the true cause of an outage, as opposed to the usual “engineers are investigating” response that many currently receive.

Openreach Statement

Openreach has developed a tool which monitors the access network using broadband data to identify cable breaks resulting from either theft or third party damage. For these incidents Openreach is able to proactively advise CPs by sending emails containing the postcodes of the affected end users. This information complements existing MSO briefings for both exchange outages and MBORC.

Following a successful trial of the process, Openreach will now be working with CPs, through the Service Management Forum, to fully develop the advice notes and associated information.

The earlier trial was apparently useful in helping police to make several arrests for cable theft/damage.