Hundreds of homes were left without the internet after thieves tried to make off with valuable copper cables earlier this week.
Villagers in North and South Luffenham, Edith Weston and Normanton were among those affected by the outage.
“We use Wi-Fi calling because of poor signal,” Coun Tim Smith said. “It went off at around 4 o’clock on Monday morning.
Photo: iStock
“I’m not sure exactly when it came back on, but it was on when I tried it this morning [Wednesday, September 17].”
A statement from Openreach said: “We’re deeply disappointed that this community is suffering the consequences of a criminal act targeting our network.
“Two underground cables more than one kilometre long were deliberately damaged and need to be replaced.
“Some services have now been restored, and our engineers are continuing work to get everyone back up and running as quickly as possible.
“Emergency traffic management is in place to ensure their safety while they work.
“These attacks cause extensive disruption to local lives, threaten the safety of vulnerable individuals, and result in significant inconvenience for residents and businesses.
“We urge people to call 101 to report any suspicious activity around our network to the police; if members of the public do believe a crime is in progress, then they should dial 999.”
A similar crime in Greatford left people in the Baston area, near Bourne, without phone or internet this month.
Openreach say they have cut thefts on their network by a third after coating their cables in a synthetic DNA forensic marker that leaves unique traces on the skin and clothing of would-be thieves.
However, the technology hasn’t completely stopped criminals attempting to steal copper cables from remote exchange boxes or from beneath manhole covers.