Network damage in Tring
Our network near Tring, Hertfordshire, has been damaged by an animal attempting to make a nest in one of our underground ducts.
Photographs taken at the scene show that a rodent or small mammal had managed to gnaw through the tough outer casing of our cables – something that would typically need a drill to penetrate. This resulted in multiple severed fibres which left many homes and businesses without broadband or phone services. Each individual fibre has the capacity to serve hundreds of customers in the Tring exchange area.
Since discovering the damage on Saturday evening, our engineers have been working around the clock to repair the damage. This effort was initially hampered because access to our underground chambers had been covered over within a private property, but once that was resolved, connectivity to the vast majority of affected customers was restored by 2:00am on Wed 2nd August. Our repair included rerouting 650 metres of cabling to avoid disturbing the nest, and the last few remaining services were back online by early Wednesday afternoon. We'll continue to work within all relevant laws, including safety and animal welfare guidelines.
Thankfully this kind of incident is extremely rare, but we apologise to anyone who's been affected and we want to thank people for their patience. We must also remind anyone who continues to have problems with their broadband service after today to contact their provider – the company they pay their bill to.
