O2 disruption in south Down 'until 25 February'

Customers have been reporting problems with their mobile signal in Kilkeel, Ballymartin and Annalong

Mobile phone customers using the O2 network in a large part of County Down are facing widespread disruption which is set to last for almost three weeks.

Many have been unable to make calls, send text messages or use their mobile data since Wednesday because of upgrade work being carried out on O2's network.

The firm said Kilkeel, Ballymartin and Annalong are affected, adding the work would be completed by 25 February.

But politicians said the disruption and its timescale were not acceptable.

"This has been an absolute disaster for people in the Mournes area and we feel very strongly that no-one is listening to us on this," said South Down assembly member (MLA) Diane Forsythe.

"This is day three of this complete network outage."

'Not just 02 customers'

Speaking to the BBC's Evening Extra programme, the Democratic Unionist Party MLA said it was disrupting many aspects of life in the Mourne area.

"We have businesses that can't operate; people who are out on call aren't receiving those calls... card machines that rely their mobile networks and local data can't connect.

"And most concerning is there is critical healthcare that can't be delivered in this area. I've had care workers who work via mobile call links that can't connect."

Diane Forsythe has lodged a complaint with communications regulator, Ofcom, over the lack of consultation or contingency planning

Ms Forsythe said she had difficulty getting information from O2 but eventually established that an O2 mast in the area is being replaced.

She said a number of other mobile phone networks use the same mast, so the disruption was not just affecting customers with O2 contracts.

The DUP MLA criticised the lack of public information about the "planned" three-week outage of the area's communications infrastructure and said she has lodged a complaint with the regulator, Ofcom.

'Far too long'

South Down assembly member Patrick Brown also contacted O2 about the issue after he received a number of complaints from his constituents.

He said he was "not overly impressed" with the company's response, adding that 25 February "is far too long for people to wait".

The Alliance MLA said he believed the disruption was more widespread than just Kilkeel, Ballymartin and Annalong, because some of the people who contacted him where living outside those areas.

One businessmen complained that he was having to "drive from Kilkeel to Rostrevor just to make a call" on his mobile phone, Mr Brown said.

O2 told BBC News NI that the firm was boosting its 4G capacity and introducing 5G services in the affected areas.

"We are carrying out works to upgrade our network and boost connectivity for customers in Ballymartin, Annalong and Kilkeel," the company said in a statement.

"Some customers may experience disruption while we deliver these upgrades and we apologise for the inconvenience this may cause."

Broadband services are not affected by the upgrade work, according to the company.

'Push for compensation'

O2 said it wrote to affected customers on 27 January and that it also sends out text alerts to people in areas affected by upgrade works.

However, Mr Brown said the disruption "seems to have come as a shock" to many people in south Down.

"I'm not convinced those texts were sent out to all the people in the areas affected," the MLA added.

Writing on his Facebook page, he said: "At a bare minimum customers should receive a refund for the period their service was down but if you have been affected in other ways, especially if you are a business customer, you can and should push for compensation as well."