BT apologises for Cambridgeshire broadband outage

BT has apologised to hundreds of Cambridgeshire residents who have been left without broadband and home phone services for almost a fortnight.

Nearly 200 customers in Little Wilbraham and Bottisham had their lines cut off in August after heavy rain caused damage to equipment, reports BBC News.

The telecoms giant stressed the repairs needed to its network were "extensive" and admitted some householders in the area may not be reconnected until the weekend (September 8th and 9th 2012).

According to a company spokesman, the first reports of faults were received on August 25th.

In order to repair the damaged junctions and cables, engineers have carried out "major excavation and engineering work", he added.

Some residents have warned the communications outage is leaving elderly people isolated and at risk.

This is the not the first glitch to hit the BT network in Cambridgeshire. In June 2010, the village of Balsham lost all broadband and home phone access after a cable theft left the local exchange cut off.

The thieves caused so much damage to BT's infrastructure that the repair work was described by the company as particularly complex.