UK telcos have reported a trend in stolen street cabinet covers in parts of the country.

As reported by BBC, Virgin Media is set to carry out repairs on telecommunications cabinets in Nottinghamshire following a spate of metal thefts.

Thieves have been removing the metal covers from the cabinets, leaving the infrastructure exposed, and looking "untidy and potentially dangerous."

The cabinets house network equipment for telcos and mobile network operators, including routers, cabling, switches, servers, and more.

Virgin Media told the BBC that the safety risk was low at these cabinets, but has warned residents not to touch or go near the cabinets until engineers have attended.

It wasn't reported how many cabinets had been targeted in Nottinghamshire, or whether other telecoms providers were impacted.

The telco has urged people to contact the company if they see any of these metal covers or lids.

Theft of telecoms equipment is common, although it's not usually the metal covers of the cabinets that are targeted. Instead, copper has often been the focus for criminals looking to cash in on the material at scrap dealers.

Copper theft has been an issue for telcos across the country on numerous occasions, often leading to network outages.

DCD has covered the impact of attacks against telecoms infrastructure in Issue 58 of DCD Magazine. Read more here.