Severed Fibre Cables Cause BT, TalkTalk And Sky Broadband Outage

Business owners and remote workers in parts of Sussex have been besieged by connectivity problems, with Sky and TalkTalk customers among those affected by disruption to landline and broadband services.

It is understood that a number of fibre cables in East Sussex were damaged significantly by the erection of a fence post yesterday afternoon.

BT Openreach, which manages the fibre infrastructure used by most of the UK’s major broadband providers, have been working to repair the issue since yesterday evening but disruption is continuing – and it might take a bit longer to fix.

East Sussex broadband outage

“A third party has damaged our network in Newhaven by digging through cables,” an Openreach spokesperson told Silicon.

“This is affecting some telephone and broadband services in the area, and our engineers are working hard to restore services as quickly as we can. Unfortunately the repair work is very complex and will take time to complete, however homes and businesses should start to see services restored from this evening but it is likely to take longer for all services to be restored.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this is causing.”

TalkTalk, Sky and BT itself have all been affected.

“We’re really sorry but we’ve got a major problem at the moment in the Sussex area, which means that some of our customers will be having trouble getting online and using their phones,” BT said on its status page. “Engineers are on site working on fixing a cable that has been damaged. We’re trying to fix the problem as quickly as we can. ”

TalkTalk says there has been a total loss of service in area codes 01323 and 01273 – properties connected to Seaford, Newhaven, Herstmonceux, Ninfield and Polegate exchanges.

Up to 32,000 Sky broadband customers have been impacted in Baldslow, Battle, Beckley, Bexhill, Brede, Brightling, Brookland, Castleham, Cooden, Crowhurst, Guestling, Hastings, Iden, Lydd, Ninfield, Northiam, New Romney, Peasmarsh, Rye, Sedlescombe, Staplecross, Wittersham, Eastbourne, Hampden Park, Alfriston, Newhaven, Peacehaven, Polegate, Pevensey Marina, Pevensey, Seaford, East Dean.

Quiz: What do you know about 4G?