According to Subsea UK, an attempt to steal fibre optic subsea cables caused a failure of phone, internet and cash machine services in the Highlands.
On Thursday the thieves tried to dig up the cable located between the villages of Lochcarron and Strathcarron in the Loch Carron. They believed that the cable contained copper.
This affected the areas served by exchanges at Ardvaser, Balallan, Duntulm, Glendale, Glenshiel, Kilillan, Scalpay, Skeabost and Uig, however eight of the Highland exchanges have since been restored.
The telephone services have also been restored via alternative routing.
A BT spokesman stated: “This attempted theft is causing huge disruption of service and inconvenience to our customers but it is symptomatic of the times we live in.
“Attacks on BT’s network are generating tens of thousands of faults each year, causing huge frustration to telephone and broadband users.”
About 9,000 customers were affected by the attempted theft.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff, June 11, 2012