No phone or internet hitting Ludlow business
When businesswoman Liz Hyder moved house she did not expect to be left without phone or internet for three months – despite having a telephone line in her building.
But despite living and working in the centre of Ludlow, she cannot get connected.
Mrs Hyder, 36, who runs her own PR business from home, said the time it has taken for BT Openreach to sort out the problem is a "disgrace" –- and damaging to small businesses like hers.
She moved from Old Street to Julian Road in Ludlow in December, and said she has had to beg a desk in a friend's office because she cannot get online at home.
Despite repeated promises from BT Openreach, she still has no idea when the problem will be sorted, she said.
"We know these things can take a bit of time so we put an order in a month before we moved on November 14," she said.
"Talk Talk (the previous resident's provider) say the line is BT's, but BT say they don't have it on their records and will need to connect it and pull cables through he wall."
She said they kept being given dates for when work would be done, but then it didn't happen."It's a crazy situation - we don't know when we're going to get connected, it could be tomorrow, it could be a month, there's no end in sight.
"We live in a town – we're not in a field or in the middle of nowhere.
"It's not acceptable. All we've done is move house and I work from home.
"As a small business it's damaging and it isn't just us. There are other businesses I know of that have had similar situations. This is a really common problem when people move house or business premises. It must be damaging to the economy. These days a phone and internet connection is pretty essential for most people's work.
"It think its a disgrace," she said. "If BT Openreach aren't capable of doing it they should let someone else."
She said Ludlow MP Philip Dunne had written to BT on her behalf.
A spokesman for BT said: "We are very sorry for the length of time taken. Connections are at full capacity so new underground duct and 120 metres of cabling is required before we can provide service.
"Weather and blocked access to manholes have hampered attempts to complete the work however excavation and cable engineers are scheduled to attend today and will complete work as quickly as possible."
