Telephone and broadband internet access services in Winterton (Scunthorpe, UK) suffered a serious outage earlier this week after BT confirmed that criminals had dug up more than 300 metres of its precious copper cable.

Last year saw an increase of 9% in deliberate attacks on BT's network, which has been fuelled by the recent surge in scrap copper prices. £770 million is the estimated cost, across all industries in the UK, for metal theft.

It's understood that BT engineers were working around the clock to restore local telecommunication services in the area, which left hundreds of residents and businesses in the Winteringham area without either phone or internet access.


Regular readers may recall that BT Openreach, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's local network, launched its new initiative against cable theft (SmartWater) during July 2010 (here); an invisible solution that can be used to forensically "tag" metal thieves.

The system uses a sophisticated forensic marking liquid that is unique to a particular location. It will be used to mark the outer shell and inner core of BT's cable, along with tools and other equipment. This will allow police to irrefutably identify where any stolen items have come from.

In hot-spot areas SmartWater trap devices will also be deployed to capture criminals red-handed. Any thieves who target Openreach property face being sprayed with the liquid, meaning they will carry evidence of their crime on their skin and clothing wherever they go.

The system is currently being deployed across the UK and we hope it will achieve its aims and help to keep us all connected.