[Update: iTnews has updated their story with information that repairs were made on the day, and fibre services restored.]
Cutting cables is not something we'd normally associate with "vandals", but apparently that's what's happened in the Hunter Valley in NSW.
According to this story posted today by our friends at iTnews, a Telstra fibre between Maitland and the Hunter Valley was deliberately cut sometime in the early hours of this morning. The result was 19000 local phone services, 8000 ADSL services having "connection issues or intermittent timeouts".
We've heard of electricity contractors accidentally doing this sort of thing before - back in 2009 contractors cut Telstra fibre in Sydney's business district. But you've got to wonder why someone would go and deliberately do it.
NBN lines will be installed via overhead lines and underground ditches. In some new housing developments it will be the only lines in the ground.