Fibre Break Disrupts Broadband ISP Connectivity Near Southampton UPDATE6

Customers of Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and associated ISPs around the Southampton region (Hampshire, UK) may be experiencing problems getting online or making phone calls this morning after roadworks accidentally damaged a major core fibre optic cable in the area.

The incident is believed to have started at around midnight and is primarily affecting the Portsmouth and surrounding areas near Southampton. Services in some areas, such as those connected to the Cosham exchange, were reconnected earlier this morning but many others have yet to be resolved and some support agents have advised that certain areas might take up to 48 hours to fix.

Aside from Portsmouth the problems are also being felt in nearby Emsworth, Hayling Island, Horndean, Petersfield, Havant and Gosport.

TalkTalk Statement

“We’re aware that some customers in the Southampton region are currently experiencing a loss of Broadband, Phone and TV service. Engineers have identified damaged fibre cabling caused by roadworks. Engineers are currently onsite continuing their investigations and repairs to restore service to the affected customers.”

Sky Statement:

“We understand from our on site engineers that the problem has been caused by a fibre-cable break. Repair work is underway and we’ll provide an update on progress later this morning. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

We expect that the complaint volumes will pick-up again this morning as people wake up to find that they still can’t get online. Unfortunately splicing lots of broken fibres and re-making the cable ducts is quite a slow, laborious process that can’t easily be rushed.

UPDATE 10:06am

The broken cable has been identified as being one that runs alongside the A27 but otherwise there’s nothing new to add.

UPDATE 1pm

Apparently an engineering team will close the road at 2pm in order to carry out repairs. On top of that they will also attempt to connect an alternative fibre cable, which should enable them to restore service until the full repair is completed. Sadly there is still no estimated fix time.

UPDATE 5:08pm

The alternative route is now being implemented, which means that connectivity may start returning but will be intermittent until the repairs are completed.

UPDATE 18th July 2018 – 7:03am

A statement posted last night by Sky said: “Unfortunately the alternative solution has been found to be unusable and full restoration works have begun following the implementation of traffic controls.” At around midnight TalkTalk added that the engineers had “estimated the new cables will be connected in the next few hours,” although there have been no further updates since.

UPDATE 18th July – 12:48pm

We understand that the repairs have now completed and services should be working normally again.