Honolulu Police have blamed vandals for cell service disruption in Windward Oahu, Hawaii, earlier this month.

Cellular coverage was down for several hours on May 10, which Police have blamed on an act of vandalism to cell towers in the area.

Residents in Windward Oahu noticed service disruption at around 3 pm, as reported by Hawaii News Now.

By 9:15 am the following morning, the Honolulu Police Department confirmed that service had been fully restored.

"Due to vandalism, cell towers in the Windward areas are currently experiencing outages. An investigation has been initiated," said the Honolulu Police Department in a statement.

Further details about potential suspects or specifics about the damage caused to the infrastructure have not been revealed.

The vandalism to the cell tower meant that people were unable to make phone calls, including 911 services.

Damage caused to telecom infrastructure has become a more common occurrence in recent years. Often, people target infrastructure such as copper, which they can then sell on.

One such example of this happened last year when suspected copper thieves toppled a 488-foot rod cell tower in Oklahoma, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage.

A report by The Financial Times (FT) earlier this year stated that telecom operators could earn tens of billions of dollars over the next 15 years from selling copper recycled from older network cables.

Earlier this year, former Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) Michael O'Rielly called for tougher punishments for people who steal or attack telecom infrastructure.

He noted that although America’s broadband providers, in cooperation with various government agencies, have done well at responding to external threats to infrastructure, the challenge is a continuous cycle.

"The reality is that there is no shortage of individuals, rogue groups, nation states, and others seeking to cause harm to Internet users, broadband networks, and in some cases, the collective critical communications infrastructure," said O'Rielly.