BT fire affects 437 exchanges
Wednesday 31 March 2010 13:25:41 by John Hunt

The Register are reporting that a fire at a BT building in North Paddington is causing widespread problems on the BT network. 437 local exchanges and 37,5000 Datastream circuits are reported to be affected.

"Following a fire at a BT exchange in the Paddington area, customers in parts of North and West London may be experiencing a loss of broadband and/or telephone service. Customers in other parts of the country may also be affected."

BT Statement

Vodafone are also reporting that its network has been affected by the incident.

Update 19:10 31/10/2010

A further statement has been received from BT this afternoon with regards the Fire at Burne House in Paddington.

"Following major flooding at a BT exchange in the Paddington area, tens of thousands of customers in parts of North and West London may be experiencing a loss of broadband and/or telephone service. Customers in other parts of the country may also be affected. We are currently working on restoring services to customers, however as this is a complex incident we cannot accurately predict when all services will be restored. We will issue further updates as the situation changes.

Any customers needing to make calls to the emergency services who have a problem using their phones are advised to do so by using their mobile phone, or alternatively by using a friend or neighbour's working phone."

Updated BT Statement