Compensation sought after three-week landline outage affects Smalley residents

An 81-year-old woman is requesting compensation after she and her neighbors experienced a three-week landline service interruption, attributed to faulty cabling. Margaret Stone, a resident of Smalley, Derbyshire, stated that her primary worry was for friends who lack mobile phones and were consequently isolated. She expressed concern for their safety in the event of an emergency and considered a three-week period without service to be excessive. Following contact from the BBC to Openreach, Mrs. Stone’s landline service was reinstated on Friday. However, the company reported that five customers remained without service as efforts persist to repair and replace approximately 145m (475ft) of cable. Openreach indicated that determining the total number of affected individuals was challenging because, depending on the cable type, some experienced a complete service outage, others only lost voice calls, and some were unaffected. Mrs. Stone conveyed that the absence of a landline had caused her anxiety. She stated: “I rely on talking to people – I do go out but the fact you can’t use your landline, it is not very good mentally.” She further elaborated: “One of my friends said ‘I have been trying to get through to you for three weeks’.” Mrs. Stone emphasized the importance of the service, stating: “When you live on your own, it can be a lifeline to be honest.” She reiterated her belief that “I do think a number of us should get some compensation.” She also cited “the worry, the stress of some of our friends not being able to contact each other,” adding: “If anyone is poorly and not got the access to the phone, it is really not good is it?” An Openreach spokesperson commented: “We are currently experiencing some disruption to telephone lines in the Smalley area, but homes and businesses should still have broadband.” The spokesperson attributed this to ongoing efforts, stating: “This is because we’ve been working to repair and replace around 145 metres of faulty underground cable.” The spokesperson confirmed that service had been progressively restored in tandem with the advancement of the cabling work. The spokesperson concluded by saying: “We understand how frustrating it is for some to be without a telephone line, and our engineers are doing all they can to get this work completed as quickly as possible.”