Watch: Openreach worker hoists cable to keep road open after tractor fells poles outside Drumahoe

The incident happened on Kilnappy Road on Friday, leaving some customers affected by loss of service - but staff were quickly on the ground to ensure that traffic would not be halted by a low cable hanging across the road.

A reader sent the ‘Journal’ a brief video, showing one of the Openreach staff using his physical strength to raise a cable high enough to let a lorry pass underneath, and keep the road open.

Openreach confirmed there was a problem on Friday and said it was caused by a tractor.

A statement said: “On Friday 1 April Openreach received a report from the PSNI at around 1pm that there was damage to telegraph poles and cabling on the Kilnappy Road. A tractor had driven down the road with forks at full height, catching the cables and pulling poles out of the ground. Openreach engineers were on site within 30 minutes, and worked initially to safely raise the cables to let traffic pass. Engineers remained onsite until about 4:30pm making the area safe.”

The statement added: “A number of premises were left without phone and broadband services over the weekend; engineers are onsite today (Monday April 4) to make the necessary repairs to restore service to those impacted.”

Openreach has a 1,000 strong team that “build and maintain the largest communications network in Northern Ireland, enabling consumers to choose from over 600 providers of phone and broadband products”.