Cable theft causes Openreach broadband outage for thousands in Thurnscoe, UK

Thieves caused disruption while hunting for copper

Cable thieves have caused an Internet outage for thousands of customers on Openreach's broadband network in the village of Thurnscoe, Yorkshire.

As reported by the BBC, phone and Internet services have been disrupted for customers in the South Yorkshire village for the last two days.

Regular attacks against telecoms infrastructure have got network operators fed up

Thieves caused damage to the local network while dragging the telco's copper cables out of the ground.

The issue of copper theft has plagued telecoms companies for years, with Openreach counting the impact of this on numerous occasions.

South Yorkshire Police received reports of manhole covers on Nicholas Lane in Goldthorpe being stolen on Friday morning, with wiring damaged in the area.

Openreach apologized for the downtime, noting that it's working to repair the damage caused and restore services.

“We’re sorry to everyone who was affected. Cable theft is a serious crime and can have a significant impact on communities … [we are working] as quickly as possible to repair the extensive damage," said Openreach.

A constant headache for Openreach

Openreach has reported copper theft in several parts of the UK, including Durham, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Essex, Shropshire, and beyond.

Despite Openreach pushing ahead with its fiber rollout across the UK, nearing 24 million premises, attacks against its legacy copper network have slowed down progress, noted the company.

Since April 2024, Openreach has reported that more than 100,000 people in the UK have lost the use of their landline and/or broadband due to copper theft, with 153km of cable stolen in that time.

During this time period, Openreach estimates that it has spent 1.2 million working hours to repair theft-related damage.

This has led the company to fight back against the issue. In May, Openreach announced a partnership with circular materials expert EMR and independent charity Crimestoppers.

On top of this, the company also continues to implement forensic marking technology SelectaDNA. SelectaDNA is a synthetic DNA and UV tracer that is sprayed directly onto cables and associated equipment.

“We are already coming off the copper network nationally, across the UK, and we are extracting copper at a fast pace, almost in a race with the criminals, because the quicker we can get copper out of the ground, the quicker they can't get hold of it,” James Arnold, regional security operations manager, UK South & London at Openreach, told DCD last year.

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