Virgin Media is working to reconnect subscribers whose broadband services were accidentally switched off by the internet service provider (ISP).

Hundreds of consumers have been left without web services for more than a week after a clear-out of unregistered cable modems mistakenly included active subscribers.

Despite the ISP's system purge progressing relatively seamlessly since February, a technical problem last week caused modems issued by NTL to be frozen out of its network.

Speaking to the Register, a Virgin Media spokesperson explained that the vast majority of affected modems were end-of-life or no longer in service due to disconnected accounts.

They stated: "A small percentage of unregistered modems were in use by customers, due to incomplete records inherited from previous guises of the company, identifying these customers was impossible."

Affected consumers have been urged to call the ISP's customer services centre to have their modem manually reconnected.