‘We’ve had no mobile signal for four months’ Tyndrum residents left frustrated by mast fault
Tyndrum customers of phone giant Vodafone say they have been left without mobile reception for the last four months.
The 2G mast at Tyndrum Upper station supports mobile phone reception and texts for Vodafone customers in the area.
But since the end of November Vodafone customers have been unable to make or receive texts or phone calls outside their homes.
They rely on their WiFi signal indoors to send and receive texts as well as mobile phone calls.
And despite repeated calls to Vodafone there appears to be no end in sight to the problem.
Tyndrum resident and Vodafone customer Gavin Macnab – who pays Vodafone a total of around £100 per month for two contracts which includes texts and mobile phone calls – said this week: “The Vodafone mast has been there for 27 years and we’ve generally had a good signal.
“There have been occasions when it has come and gone, but this is the first time it has been this bad.
“It is now exactly four months since the signal disappeared on November 22. When we’ve called Vodafone we’ve had no explanation.
“People are so fed up that they are moving to other providers like EE which has the other mast at Tyndrum Upper station.
“It’s more important than ever to keep in touch with people during the pandemic. I really need to keep in touch with a disabled relative and since the mast reception went down I have to stay inside because I don’t want to miss any calls.”
Gavin added that customers in the area had been calling Vodafone repeatedly for weeks in an effort to get the matter resolved, but there is still no sign of progress.
He said: “I’d estimate that I’ve spent around 27 hours in all on the telephone to
Vodafone since this started with different departments trying to help.
“We’ve been given dates when things will be fixed, but nothing materialises. We’ve been going round in circles. There’s no end in sight. It’s very frustrating.”
A Vodafone spokesperson said this week: “We’re sorry that some of our customers in the Tyndrum area have been experiencing problems with our coverage in recent weeks.
“This is due to technical issues with one of our sites in the area, and we are working hard to fix this as soon as possible.”
In December 2014 cabling issues with the Vodafone mast in neighbouring Crianlarich had cut off the mobile network for 10 days.
Residents had made several complaints to the company with some pointing out that benefits had been stopped, as they used Vodafone internet to contact the Jobcentre.
That month Tyndrum also experienced a sevenday ‘outage’ in the Vodafone signal.
People are so fed up they are moving to other suppliers like EE