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Broadband in Exeter blasted by French lightning

Broadband connections in and around the city of Exeter have been blighted by a storm that drifted over from France. 

This morning Openreach, BT’s network division was forced to issue an MBORC (Measures Beyond Our Reasonable Control) message, alerting ISPs to the fact that services in the Exeter region had been disrupted. 

Openreach is on the case and has begun to direct resources towards getting people back online and restore services ‘to levels they were at immediately before this severe weather.’

Broadband in Exeter blasted by French lightning
Reports of the storm being intentionally conjoured by rouge Frankish electromancers have yet to be confirmed

Read our feature ‘Why hasn’t BT Openreach fixed my broadband?’BT declares an MBORC status whenever there is major network failure caused by outside factors, the two most common being extreme weather and copper theft. 

The full extent of the damage is not yet known, but only properties connected to the Exeter exchange are thought to be affected. 

The MBORC notice mentions multiple lightning strikes and flooding, so levels of water damage are likely. This could lead to parts of the network being replaced if street cabinets are beyond repair.

Local paper the Exeter Express and Echo points the finger of blame at a storm which travelled over the English Channel, or ‘La Manche’, as the French call it. 

Openreach engineers have had their work cut out for them this year after another unseasonable winter led to several broadband outages across the UK. Storms also caused problems for the Isle of Arran, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the north of England in March. 

Image: John Fowler/Flickr

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