Virgin Media outage sees 5,000 without broadband

Up to 5,000 customers were affected by the blackout, with many taking to social media to voice their anger.

Freelance photographer Walter Neilson, who lives in the Dysart area, said his web service had been down for around 24 hours.

He said that as a businessman, the loss of his telecommunications network made things very difficult.

“If I had been working for a newspaper, the outage would have cost me revenue.

“It’s amazing how much you rely on a stable internet provider, you really notice when it’s down because you’re using it all the time.”

A spokesman for Virgin said: “Virgin Media’s fibre network in Glenrothes was damaged on Thursday night by a third party excavation.

“Our engineers worked overnight to repair the damage. All broadband and landline services were restored to the area this morning.

“The fibre was damaged by a utility company conducting excavation work on Main Street, Thornton, at approximately 7.45pm.

“Services were restored at 9am, Friday 25 November. Approximately 5,000 customers were affected.”