EE offers compensation over mid Wales mobile phone coverage loss

EE said it was finalising plans to offer compensation for poor coverage

A mobile phone company is to offer compensation to customers after fixing a network fault that caused months of signal problems in Powys.

EE customers in Brecon, Builth Wells and Crickhowell have experienced problems since February.

The firm said it was finalising plans to allow customers affected by the poor coverage to claim compensation.

Last week Brecon and Radnorshire AM Kirsty Williams urged customers to send their claims to the company.

The Welsh Liberal Democrat leader claimed EE had turned phone masts off without warning their customers.

But the firm said the problems were due to technical faults with masts rather than any being switched off.

Ms Williams said the poor signal coverage started following the merger of mobile phone companies T-Mobile and Orange to form EE.

She said her constituency office had been inundated with complaints from EE customers after she launched an appeal on Facebook for those affected by the signal problem to contact her.

'Sincere apologies'

An EE spokesperson said: "We have been conducting analysis on the network in the Brecon area and along the A40 and it looks like coverage has resumed and we are seeing voice and data traffic on several sites that had the fault.

"We are continuing to monitor the sites closely to evaluate performance and ensure we're resuming good mobile services to customers.

"We are also finalising details of the compensation we plan to offer customers.

"We'll have a policy for people affected and they will be able to contact us to receive compensation on an individual basis."

Roger Williams, Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, said: "Improving network coverage has long been a campaign issue for me and I will continue to pressure the mobile network companies within Brecon and Radnorshire to ensure customers receive the services they sign up for."

Mr Williams said EE had sent their "sincere apologies for the length of the disruption and have launched an internal review into their system failures".