Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to steal about 100 metres of copper cable from an underground telecommunications pit at Salisbury in Adelaide's north.
Police said patrols saw the men in a parked Izuzu hire-truck on Brown Terrace about 2:20am on Saturday.
Officers found a large amount of copper wiring, an electric saw and other equipment in the tray of the truck, police said.
Telstra's public affairs manager, Chris Marks, said the company's infrastructure was targeted, but there had been no disruption to services.
He said customers should contact their provider if they experienced service issues.
"Cutting, damaging and removing cables in these service pits not only causes inconvenience for local residents, it also poses a potential safety threat for vulnerable customers or people with a medical condition," Mr Marks said.
"It also means we often have to take our work crews off completing other work jobs to attend these damaged sites, meaning other people and businesses with faults and outages may be impacted for longer."
A Craigmore man, 31, and a Hamley Bridge man, 41, have been charged with property damage and theft.
They were refused police bail and will face the Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Monday.
