A MYSTERY workman was responsible for Sky customers across the county losing their broadband and phone services for more than 24 hours, it has emerged.

Customers in Evesham, Pershore and Worcester were left frustrated on Saturday, October 12, when they suddenly lost their internet connections.

Now, it has emerged that a mystery digging blunder cut through 20 fibres at one of five sites at Evesham Bridge, where major work is being carried out. Emma Tennant, from BT Openreach – the company which owns the cable network used by Sky – said the company sent engineers out to replace the fibres.

“Contractors working for an electricity company accidentally cut through some Openreach cables in Evesham on Saturday afternoon,” she said. “Openreach engineers undertook the necessary repairs that afternoon and all services were back on by the evening.”

Worcestershire County Council said residents had approached them about the problem, and they had established that the work was being undertaken by Western Power Distribution.

A spokesman said: “We’ve managed to determine the damage was caused by Western Power Distribution.

“The county council has no involvement on this occasion.” However, a spokesman for Western Power said they had not caused any damage.

All broadband and talk services resumed late in the afternoon on Sunday, October 13, with some disgruntled customers receiving refunds for their services being down for between 24 and 36 hours.

Sky assured its customers that their services, including the On Demand service for Sky TV customers, would resume as soon as possible, but provided minimum updates on their website or to customers who were calling in to find out what was going on.

A spokesman for the company said because so many fibres were cut through, it was highly unlikely it was just Sky customers who were affected, but BT, Virgin and Talk Talk all confirmed that they had not received any complaints about service disruption.