Residents in rural community near Inverness left without mobile phone signal for 10 days

Residents in a rural community south of Inverness have been without mobile signals and poor internet for 10 days.

The ongoing situation, which is affecting the Strathdearn area, has been described as “unacceptable” by a community leader who is calling for the problem to be fixed as a matter of a urgency.

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Barbara MacAskill, chairperson of Strathdearn Community Council, said not all mobile phone services were affected but most of them and although various members of the public had complained to individual providers, the problem was still ongoing.

“We have been having problems periodically for the last few months with the signal but never before has it lasted as long as this,” she said.

“I want to get to the bottom of it and get it fixed.”

Ms MacAskill was particularly concerned for the safety of older people who might be affected by the lack of a signal.

“We have elderly people living alone and disabled people relying on services such as a help call to carers’ mobiles which are not working, not to mention people hybrid working,” she said.

“This issue has been on and off for some time now but the latest outage has been for over 10 days straight now and this is completely unacceptable.

“When members of the public have called their providers, they have been advised that when checking lines there is no problem.

“But there clearly is a grave problem which needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.”

Ms MacAskill has lodged a complaint with the regulator for the communications services, Ofcom, but is still awaiting a response.

According to Ofcom, providers have a duty to take appropriate and proportionate measure to maintain the availability, performance and functionality of their networks and services.

“We would strongly advise anyone with a fault/outage issue to contact their provider, as it is the provider's responsibility to fix it,” it said.

“If consumers are unhappy with the service they are receiving from their phone company, and have raised concerns with their provider already, they have the option to take their complaint further for independent resolution using Alternative Dispute Resolution.”

Ofcom said when a mobile phone is used to make a call to the emergency service numbers (999 and 112) and the provider’s network is unavailable, the call will roam onto the alternative network that has the best signal.

Ofcom provides advice on how to make a complaint on its website.

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