3km of copper wire stolen outside Cranagh

At some stage during last week, the BT network in Cranagh was badly damaged due to the theft of more than 3km of underground copper cable, impacting phone and broadband service to local homes and businesses in the area.

This has meant that some residents have been without phone or broadband service since last Thursday.

BT said that work is still ongoing to restore residents phone and broadband service. The company has also urged anyone with information on the theft to contact the PSNI.

A  spokesperson said, “Engineers have been continuing to work to re-establish people’s phone and broadband quickly and safely over the weekend and repairs are progressing well, with some customers’ service recovered.  We aim to complete the work to get everyone else back up and running by the end of this week.

“We’re really disappointed that residents in Cranagh are having to bear the brunt of criminal behaviour and theft from our network. These attacks cause unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk.

“We encourage anyone who is still experiencing problems to contact their provider who will advise us.  We also urge people to call 101 to report any suspicious activity to the Police.  Examples of this activity include seeing people lifting manhole lids or unusual activity around our network in fields late at night, particularly if it involves 4×4 vehicles.  If members of the public do believe a crime is in progress then they should dial 999.  You can find more information about what we’re doing to tackle metal theft, along with a link to report cable theft to Openreach directly”

Sinn Féin Councillor for the Rural Sperrins Fergal Leonard said, “I was aware that there was BT outage on Thursday and this was reported by Sinn Féin to BT at that time following contact from members of the public in the area. However, late on Friday night a local lady contacted me and explained the source of the problem in the area was due to an underground cable theft between Barnes Glen and the townland of Gorticastle”

He continued, “Early on Saturday morning I contacted the Regional Officer for Local Government Civil Contingencies to ensure the matter was escalated to the highest levels in BT and in Civil Contingencies. Discussions took place emphasising the scale and urgency of the issue and possible contingency arrangements. A plan was put in place to have replacement cable shipped from England, brought to the area and a process to join the new cable to the existing BT infrastructure began on Saturday afternoon.

Concluding Councillor Leonard stated, “The theft of the cable was a disgraceful attack on the local community infrastructure and has impacted on dozens of families in the rural area who depend on their landlines and broadband to ensure they are connected to both essential services and emergency services.

“It has impacted on all ages including older people who rely on their telephone line to report falls/difficulties and young people to assist with their school and university studies. I would like to acknowledge the resilience of the residents in the Barnes/Cranagh area during this upheaval and I would ask homeowners to follow the advice from Openreach to contact their provider to report any continuing difficulties.”