DURING a crash at the Bishopdown Farm Roundabout earlier this week, one of the vehicles involved struck a metal cabinet containing telecommunications equipment operated by Openreach, knocking out landline phone services to approximately 600 customers in the Bishopdown area.

The equipment contained within the cabinet was copper-based infrastructure rather than newer digital technology to which the country is transitioning.

Salisbury was the first part of the country where the more recent technology was widely available to local residents, with 96% of the area having access.

A statement from Openreach on Thursday said there was no estimated completion date.

However, following rumours that services could remain down for 8-10 weeks, Sally Bell, Openreach's head of external communications and social media in the South, clarified that "the latest from the ground is that we will be able to start reconnecting customers within the next week."

SEE ALSO: Phone and broadband services disrupted in Bishopdown following crash

According to Ofcom rules, customers whose telecommunications services remain unavailable for longer than two full working days are entitled to an automatic compensation of £8.40 a day for each calendar day that the service is not restored.

This compensation comes from providers rather than Openreach, which operates the equipment. The first day customers in the Bishopdown area would have been eligible for this compensation was Thursday, January 12.

Sally said in the future, when Salisbury and the rest of the country has finished its conversion to digital phone technology, the type of issue being faced by Bishopdown this week will no longer take place. The green metal cabinets, such as the one destroyed on January 9, only contain the copper technology that is being phased out.

Sally said: "With full fibre, things like cabinet smashes become a thing of the past because we're not relying on that technology."