Phone lines and net connections restored - BT

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SOME phone and Internet customers in Bromsgrove who lost their connections a fortnight ago have still been without their services this week.

We reported last week how hundreds of homes had been cut off after vandals severed two of BT’s cables on October 18, leading to more than 1,000 fault reports in the space of eight days.

Residents have taken to our Facebook page again this week to express their dismay and anger that the lines had still not being restored.

On Tuesday (October 30), Jennie Whipp said her mum was still affected and she relied on her phone for her business.

And Samuel Platt said he had been given several reconnection dates.

Then on Wednesday (October 31), several people got in touch with us, via Facebook, to say their phone lines were still down.

A BT spokesperson told The Standard yesterday (Thursday) said: “All jointing (reconnecting each customer back onto the cable) was completed overnight and engineers are now just testing each line one by one to eliminate cross lines and any residual faults.

“Any customers still experiencing complete loss of service should contact their service provider to raise a fault as they may have a separate issue not linked with this cable.”

We also asked BT about reports we had received of some people being reconnected to the wrong numbers, leading to cross lines.

The spokesperson added: “Unfortunately cross lines are common following a large re-jointing process.

“The work is very tricky.

“Engineers go through each line one by one and re-test once the major work is complete to eliminate these.”

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