Cable thieves knock out telephone service

Hundreds of homes and businesses in Kintbury and Hamstead Marshall are without phone lines

HUNDREDS of people are currently without phone lines in Kintbury and Hamstead Marshall after thieves tried to steal underground cable.

Since Wednesday (May 25), British Telecom (BT) has received 328 reports of faults within the Kintbury area, which includes individual homes and businesses.

The problem has affected phone lines and internet connections and BT spokesman, Paul Hayward, said the effects to service had been the result of ‘malicious cuts' to an underground cable in an apparent attempt to steal cable.

He said: “Engineers worked overnight to take out the damaged section and to bring in replacement cabling.

“This is now in and we are now working to individually connect those affected onto the new cabling.”

Mr Hayward added that engineers would continue to work throughout today and overnight and said that end users would start to see their services gradually restored as the work progressed.

He said: “We hope to complete the works to restore all services over the Bank Holiday weekend, as long as we don't encounter any unforeseen problems.”