Work on the fibre-optic underground cable network will start immediately and be 90% complete by 2014.

BBC: North Yorkshire's ?70m broadband project starts

Ducting for the underground cable would be installed in a trench, which would be restored within weeks.

BBC: Rampion south coast wind farm plan reduced

United Utilities said the electricity went off in about 1, 300 households in the Eccles area at 1430 BST due to an underground cable fault.

BBC: Eccles homes hit by power cut during England match

An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper to sell as scrap when she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet services to all of neighbouring Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday.

FORBES: Elderly Woman Shuts Down Armenian Internet

First introduced in the late 1800s to save the strain on horses hauling carts up the city's steep inclines, the 15, 500-pound cable-powered cars grip a continuously moving underground cable with pliers-like gear to travel the streets of San Francisco.

NPR: San Francisco Cable Car Accidents Costs Millions

The cable was stolen from underground in the West Butterwick area of Scunthorpe, in the early hours of Sunday morning, BT said.

BBC: West Butterwick cable theft cuts phone services

Mr Lee added that an as-yet unknown length of power cable was planned to go underground around Meifod, near Welshpool.

BBC: Peniarth Valley 'too steep' for Powys pylon route