Cable Thieves Knock Out Openreach Broadband in Rickmansworth UPDATE

Some 880 homes, businesses and schools in the Hertfordshire (England) town of Rickmansworth, which is home to a total population of over 25,000, have been left without a working fixed broadband ISP and phone service. The situation occurred after criminals damaged Openreach’s local network while attempting to steal their copper telecoms cable.

The incident occurred during broad daylight around 5.35pm on Tuesday 3rd October 2023 in the Park Road area, which saw metal thieves – most likely posing as fake engineers with high visibility jackets – rip up and drag 175 metres of thick underground copper cable into Fortune Common. At this point Openreach says the vehicle they were using got stuck, but by then the damage to their network had already been done.

Crimes like this have become increasingly common in recent years, driven in part by the high price of copper, although a series of UK-wide arrests toward the end of last year (example) – followed by some convictions – did seem to put a limited dent in the activity. But there are still plenty of organised criminal gangs that seem to engage in the same activity.

The perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they cause to locals, some of which are dependent upon the related services. The rollout of full fibre (FTTP) lines should, eventually, help to reduce such thefts as fibre has no value to thieves. But this won’t completely stop the problem from occurring because fibre and copper cables often share some of the same ducts, and thieves sometimes confuse the two.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said (Watford Observer):

“Our engineering team is working hard to organise repairs and get those affected back in service as soon as possible and our security team is investigating the theft alongside Hertfordshire Constabulary. We’re proactively using anti-theft technology to help track stolen cable and convict criminals.

We encourage anyone who is experiencing problems with their phone or broadband to contact their provider who will advise us. It’s also worth remembering that vulnerable status (which can prioritise repair work) is determined by broadband providers; if you think you or a family member should be given this status, please register with your provider.”

Customers in the area who are members of an ISP that is a signatory to the automatic compensation scheme should be compensated for any outage lasting longer than 2 working days. At present this scheme is supported by most of the major ISPs including BT, Hyperoptic, Sky Broadband (inc. NOW Broadband), TalkTalk (Openreach’s network), Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, Vodafone (Openreach’s network), EE, Plusnet and Zen Internet.

Openreach also has a partnership with Crimestoppers, which offers rewards for information given anonymously to the charity about cable thefts, if it leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible – you can contact them 100% anonymously on 0800 555 111 or use their anonymous online form. You can also contact Openreach’s security team direct or report via the local police (101), or if you see a crime in progress, then call the police on 999.

At the time of writing it’s still not known precisely when the problems in Rickmansworth will be fully resolved.

UPDATE 13th October 2023

Openreach has just informed us that they “aim to have the work completed and everyone affected back up and running in the next few days.”