Vandals cut fibre cable for third time in a fortnight, disrupting Hunter mobile and internet

Thieves hunting for copper have cut major fibre optic cables and knocked out internet and fixed phone services for TPG and Vodafone customers across the Hunter, according to the region's federal MP.

A TPG telecom spokesperson said a fibre cable at East Maitland had been deliberately damaged for the third time in two weeks.

Hunter MP Dan Repacholi said on social media on Friday that TPG had advised him the damage was behind the outage, and that technicians were on site making urgent repairs.

He said the damage was significant and the fix "will take some time".

"I know how bloody frustrating this is for locals and businesses, especially those who've already dealt with repeated disruptions," Mr Repacholi said.

He urged residents who see anyone around pits in the ground, particularly late at night, to report it to police immediately.

The TPG spokesperson said the cable, which is owned by Vocus, was damaged by vandals overnight, affecting "some mobile and home internet services in the region".

A specialised fibre repair crew was sent out on Friday morning and repairs are under way.

"We know customers will be upset and frustrated to hear criminals have again damaged vital telecommunications infrastructure," the spokesperson said.

They said it was the third attack on the cable in the past fortnight and that, although Vocus owns it, TPG had put additional security patrols in place after the incidents.

TPG is working with Vocus to restore services as quickly as possible and apologised for the disruption.

The outage comes as mobile customers on the Vodafone and TPG networks face their own run of disruptions.

Vodafone's network status page lists an outage to its 5G and 4G network that began at 1am on Friday and remains in progress.

It is the latest in a series of incidents listed by the carrier this week. A 4G outage ran from 7am to 3pm on Tuesday, October 13.

A 5G and 4G outage followed on Wednesday, from 3am to 5pm.

Two further 5G and 4G outages are listed for midnight to 1am on Friday, immediately before the current one.

TPG Telecom owns Vodafone, and the Vodafone network is also used by brands including iiNet, Internode and Lebara.

Customers can continue to call Triple Zero on their mobile where another mobile network is available.

This process, called 'camp on', can take time as the mobile phone attempts to connect to an alternative mobile network.

If a call does not connect within around five seconds, callers should hang up and try again immediately.

On subsequent attempts, callers should remain on the line for up to 60 seconds to give their phone the best chance of connecting via another network.

A fixed voice service is a home or business phone service delivered over fixed infrastructure, such as a nbn connection.

Unlike a mobile phone it cannot connect to an alternative mobile network for Emergency Calling.

Fixed voice customers who need to call Triple Zero should use an alternative phone while the outage is ongoing.