Openreach’s network near Tring, Hertfordshire, has been damaged by an animal attempting to make a nest in one of its underground ducts.
Photographs taken at the scene show that a rodent or small mammal had managed to gnaw through the tough outer casing of cables – something that would typically need a drill to penetrate.
Openreach said that 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, it said.
Since discovering the damage, engineers have been working around the clock to repair the damage. The repair included rerouting 650 metres of cabling to avoid disturbing the nest.
Openreach said this kind of incident is extremely rare.