Thousands of homes and businesses across Nottinghamshire are without telephone and internet services after the network was “maliciously damaged.” Telecommunications company Openreach said it was working to replace about 700 meters of cable after it was cut on Sunday. The outage is affecting about 10,000 properties, including businesses that are unable to use card payment machines. Openreach stated it could take up to 48 hours before everyone affected has their services restored.
The network was damaged near Trent Bridge, affecting properties mainly in West Bridgford and The Meadows. Residents reported that the network in some areas of the county went down on Sunday. Openreach added that Nottinghamshire Police had been informed.
A spokesperson for Openreach said, “We’re really disappointed that people living and working here are bearing the brunt of criminal behavior and theft from our network. These attacks cause significant damage and unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk.”
In Clifton, a medical centre has been forced to implement “disaster recovery plans.” Louise Perkins, practice manager of Rivergreen Medical Centre, said the centre’s clinical and telephone systems are internet-based, making it challenging to manage.
Nottinghamshire network disruption impacts thousands
“It’s a massive impact,” she said. Perkins added that some GPs had been redeployed to other affiliated centres, while nurses were running a reduced service. Andy Charlesworth, 70, a patient of the centre, said he was unable to book a doctor’s appointment due to the outage.
“It’s impacted me both through the doctors and at home because I’ve got no internet at home,” he said. Perkins mentioned that appointments would be rescheduled for later if they had been affected. In Bingham, Alex Beiscak, manager of DIY shop The Handicentre, said the situation had made things “very difficult.”
“A lot of our suppliers’ deadlines for ordering are on Monday, so if we can’t put our order in, we won’t get any stock for the week,” the 37-year-old said.
Some shops in the town have placed “cash only” signs in their windows, including Lidl and Co-op. The disruption has caused significant inconvenience across the community, but efforts are ongoing to restore services as quickly as possible.
