Copper Cable Thieves Strike Openreach’s Wrexham Network AGAIN UPDATE

Some 1,200 customers on Openreach’s broadband and phone network in Wrexham (Wales) have been left disconnected again after the operator’s local network was hit by yet another theft of copper telecoms cable, which appears to have occurred in roughly the same area as two prior thefts earlier this month (here).

Sadly, it’s not uncommon to see a string of attacks like this hit an area before it starts to subside as the gang(s) move on to target a different region – often as a result of increased public awareness, police activity and Openreach’s security enhancements. The high price of copper helps to fuel such activity, while the perpetrators have no regard for the serious harm they cause.

The latest incident appears to have occurred just after midnight on 17th May and is affecting roughly the same Southsea and Coedpoeth area as before. The cable itself is often stolen by forcefully ripping and dragging it out of the ground, which has a tendency to cause significant damage and is rarely a quick fix.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said:

“We are really disappointed to report that our infrastructure serving properties in the Southsea and Coedpoeth area of Wrexham has once again been targeted by criminals.”

Our engineers have been working hard to repair our damaged infrastructure that has had around 5km of underground copper cable stolen on separate occasions.

We’re working closely with police and have deployed enhanced security measures in the area. It goes without saying that cable theft is an issue that has a significant impact on the wider community and we would urge the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity that they spot around any of our infrastructure to the police.”

The rollout of full fibre (FTTP) broadband services should eventually help to reduce such thefts (fibre has no value to thieves), but it won’t completely stop the problem from occurring until further into the future. This is because the gangs will sometimes attack fibre ducts on the assumption that they might contain copper. In other cases, copper and fibre cables may share the same duct, and thus any damage can impact both services.

UPDATE 19th May 2022

Openreach informs that the most recent theft struck near Chirk (320m cable), which is a few km south of Coedpoeth. The total number of potential customers affected by these thefts are 4400, but the actual figure will be much less because a large number should still have been able to access their broadband via FTTC.