Virgin Media customers’ three-day outage anger

Cable break left many without services

Nearly 2,000 Dundee residents finally had their broadband reconnected yesterday after a three-day outage.

Supplier Virgin Media was able to reconnect the bulk of its customers in the DD2 postcode area around 10am and said those affected may be eligible for compensation.

Customers had been without broadband, television and phone services since Friday morning due to a fibre cable breaking.

But many were irate at what they claimed was a lack of communication from Virgin Media over the problems in Dundee.

Jeweller Lorraine Law said: “It came back on about 10 o’clock on Monday morning but it’s been a pain.

“Thankfully, I was able to use my mobile phone as a wi-fi hot spot but that uses massive amounts of data.”

She continued: “There was no real communication – that was my problem.

“You don’t realise how much you rely on the internet until you don’t have it.”

A spokesman for Virgin Media apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused by the 72-hour blackout.

He said: “We can confirm that service issues affecting a small number of customers in Dundee has now been resolved.

“Those affected will be compensated and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”

The company was not the only one hit by technical problems in Dundee.

Schools across the city were left unreachable by telephone due to a “technical issue” yesterday.

The local authority said an “intermittent” problem with the phone system caused the disruption.

The issue is understood not to be connected to the problems affecting Virgin Media.

A number of schools were affected. Parents of pupils at Forthill Primary were sent a text from the council which read: “Apologies to parents who have been trying to telephone the school today – engineers repairing fault.”

Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry was also hit by the issue.

A text sent to parents stated: “Grove phones are down. Please email if your child is absent today. Thank you.”

Dundee City Council tweeted: “Due to a technical issue, Dundee City Council’s telephone system is suffering from some disruption.

“This includes schools across the city. “The council would like to thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this problem.”