Problem causes outage of access to services

Residents in parts of South Uist were left high and dry yesterday as problems on the phone network caused an outage of access to vital 999 services.

The issue, believed to have been restricted to the Grogarry area, was first reported by police on Thursday evening around 10pm.

Approximately 180 people are reported to have been affected by the outage, with those in the area encouraged to refrain from making any non-urgent calls to ensure that the available phone lines were available for the use of real emergencies.

Police had warned that, due to the

“Our engineers have been working hard to fix the issue”

restriction, some people were unable to use their own phones, or even public payphones, to dial 999 in the case of an emergency.

Residents were encouraged to attempt 101 to reach their nearest police station directly should they be unable to reach the required service on 999.

It is understood that most mobile phones in the area were able to work as normal as mobile phone networks in the area remained operational.

A BT spokesman confirmed engineers were working on the fault yesterday, adding: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience.

“Our engineers have been working hard to fix the issue.

“Calls made from mobiles, including 999 calls from mobiles, and broadband services have not been affected.”

The service remained out of action last night around 6pm, 18 hours after the fault was initially reported.