Thousands Cut-off After Theft of BT Copper Telecoms Cable in Billingham

Criminals have disrupted the broadband and phone services for at least 5,000 people and businesses in the North East England town of Billingham (Durham), which is home to a total population of 36,000+, after they stole large sections of vital copper telecoms cable from BT’s local network.

The theft itself actually occurred almost two weeks ago on Sunday September 14th (11:20pm), at the junction between Norton Road and Billingham (near Bypass Road), and sadly the damage was so serious that extensive repairs have been required.

In a statement BT said that 1,200 customers have now been reconnected, while the rest may have to wait until the end of this week.

Official BT Statement (19th September 2014)

Cable thieves caused extensive damage to the underground BT network on Sunday night when they cut nine cables in Billingham.

Teams of BT engineers have been working flat out through night and day to repair the damage and services to customers are being steadily restored as the work progresses.

So far, about 1,200 customers are back in service and we will continue to pull out all the stops to complete the work as quickly as possible.

Due to the huge scale of the repair job, we expect the work to continue until the end of next week.

The cable theft occurred at about 11.20pm on Sunday in Norton Road, Billingham. Anybody with any information about the incident can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or through an anonymous online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org .

Crimestoppers and BTOpenreach have joined forces to offer a reward of up to £1,000 for any information on the thefts that leads to arrests and subsequent successful convictions. Aside from the disruption for local home owners, especially those in need of a phone for emergency service cover, the issue is also affecting trade for local businesses.

In the meantime some residents have been able to get online via Mobile Broadband.