Cable Thieves Knock Out Broadband in St Neots for a Second Time UPDATE2

Criminals have, for the second time in the space of around one month (here), today disrupted Openreach’s broadband services in the Cambridgeshire (England) town of St Neots by attempting to steal an unspecified amount of the UK network operator’s local copper telecoms cable.

The latest incident appears to have occurred during the early hours of this morning, and precise details are currently in short supply. But Openreach has confirmed to ISPreview that the criminal gang appears to have audaciously targeted the “same section” of the town as they struck the first time around (the original incident occurred on a bridge to the south of the town, along the A428 – pictured).

The outage is likely to be impacting several hundred customers (the previous event impacted 380) and could potentially take several days to fully resolve, due to how it occurred between two high traffic roundabouts and a busy bridge crossing (requires temporary traffic lights and other safety measures). Sadly, the perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they cause to locals, some of which are dependent upon related services.

Feedback from the local area describes a nearby field where several hundred metres worth of core copper telecoms cable appears to have just been laid in parallel on the ground after being ripped up. This is not usually something that metal thieves would leave behind, although it’s possible they could have been rumbled while attempting to complete the theft.

Sites that have previously suffered from such thefts often benefit from the use of additional protections (e.g. extra CCTV, forensic liquid markers like SelectaDNA, additional police patrols and other measures), which makes it incredibly risky for a gang to attack the exact same area twice in a short space of time. In addition, in the past year or so we’ve seen a rise in related arrests and convictions of those who attempt such thefts (here, here and here).

The ongoing deployment 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 (i.e. damaging one also damages the other), and thieves sometimes confuse the two. BT and Openreach will eventually remove all of their copper cables, but that’s a much longer process.

Finally, Openreach has a partnership with Crimestoppers, which sometimes 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). But if you see a crime in progress, please call the police on 999.

We hope to have more details soon.

UPDATE 18th March 2025 @ 7:20am

We’re still awaiting an update from Openreach, but local residents and network operators have been helping to provide additional details. The incident itself is known to have started at just after 2:30am yesterday morning and it will take all week to fully repair the damage. Some 1,000 metres of copper cable has been damaged.

However, we are also hearing that Police recovered two stolen vehicles and around 500 metres of the cable from a nearby field, which is the same location as mentioned earlier. If they stole the previously replaced cable, then there’s also a good chance that it may have been forensically tagged, which would make it easier to trace.

UPDATE 18th March 2025 @ 10:50am

We’ve now had a full comment from Openreach on all this.

A spokesperson for Openreach stated:

“We are deeply disappointed that this community near St Neots is, once again, facing the consequences of criminal acts targeting our network. Overnight, more than 1,000 metres of underground cables were deliberately damaged. These attacks cause extensive disruption to local lives, threaten the safety of vulnerable individuals, and result in significant inconvenience for residents and businesses.

Our engineers are assessing the full extent of the damage. Repairs start this evening and will continue throughout the week, as work is restricted to overnight hours due to the location on the busy A428. We are committed to restoring service as quickly and safely as possible.

We urge people to call 101 to report any suspicious activity around our network to the Police; if members of the public do believe a crime is in progress then they should dial 999.”