A NUMBER of Openreach customers in the Andover area have been experiencing issues following a storm.

An Andover resident, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Advertiser on Friday, September 29, saying their landline had been disconnected and not working for over a week.

They added that in conversations with Openreach to try and rectify the issue, they were told that a further 168 customers were also experiencing issues.

The Advertiser contacted Openreach for an explanation which said the problem had arisen after a cable was damaged by a lightning strike after a recent storm.

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An Openreach spokesperson said: “Engineers are working hard to repair damage to our network after lightning struck a cable in Andover. We’re sorry for any disruption this has caused and are prioritising getting services restored to critical services and vulnerable people. 

"Lightning can cause complex damage, including multiple faults at various points on single lines, and problems often only emerge several days after a strike. So as quickly as we’re repairing faults, more are being reported. 

"We’d ask anyone experiencing any loss of service to report it to their service provider as soon as they can. They’ll investigate and arrange to replace any damaged equipment or for our engineers to visit if that’s needed.”