Mobile phone chaos and frustration

Bewildered Saddleworth residents are desperately seeking answers to mobile phone issues after technical issues have left some without a reliable signal for more than two months.

And in one case, a Dobcross resident has threatened Virgin 02 with legal action because the poor call quality  is damaging his communications business.

He, and residents in Denshaw, have been hit by  a series of “updates” which simply give them a future date for another update.

Local Councillors Sam Al-Hamdani and Garth Harkness have been working with local residents to help them raise complaints about the failure to resolve the issue.

Local Lib Dem Councillor Garth Harkness said: “Unfortunately, regulator Ofcom doesn’t give a fixed time for the suppliers to resolve the issue. They do give residents a formal route for complaints after two months, which suggests that this really should have been fixed by now.

“There are two schemes for complaints, and residents should check which one their supplier is signed up to, and definitely raise a complaint.”

One of the affected residents is Alan Hulme, who has been left without a mobile signal in his house for nearly three months. He said: “We’ve had no mobile phone signal since late December. We're with Asda Mobile, which piggybacks on Vodafone. Neither has been in the least bit helpful with updates, just two stock replies in all this time.

“Like many who have fast broadband we no longer have an old fashioned landline, and now no mobile signal either. We have been struggling along by using mobile wifi calling, which links our mobiles with the internet. But if we get a power cut – we’ve had two during this period – we lose everything.

“If we had an emergency of some kind when this happened, we'd have no phone and no wifi and no idea when power might be restored. It is very worrying and the phone companies seem in no hurry to sort it out.”

Another Denshaw local said:”Villagers on the Vodaphone network in Denshaw have had no phone signal or 4G access since the 20th December 2025.

“Neither Vodaphone themselves or the other phone carriers that use the network are providing any useful information, no completion date has been set. All they will say is that it’s more serious than first thought. They have been saying this since just after Christmas.

“The lack of updates and information is incredibly frustrating. I have rang or live chatted with Lebara weekly and they don’t have any more detailed information. The standard answer seems to be that it will be fixed in 48 hours, they have been promising this since December!

“I got the first months payment refunded after a few weeks but nothing further has been offered.

We have had 2 power cuts in the last few weeks, thankfully only for minutes rather than hours but when that happens we are totally without means of communication. Vodaphone is the only network that has good coverage both inside and outside our home in the village so we are stuck!

“If this issue had occurred in a more urbanised area I suspect there would be more information made available and a fix would be made quicker as it would affect more customers. Rural areas seem to be ignored. It’s rural areas that depend on mobile phone signal.”

A Dobcross resident, bedeviled by the phone issue says his provider, Virgin 02, said the issue was due to a mast being down and they were waiting for a part coming from China.

And although Virgin 02 claimed to have fixed the issue over the weekend calls to and from the number today remained ‘wonky.’

He added:” unsolicited, they have given me a £150 credit. But today the phone linkage is as bad as ever it was. And I’ve told them I want a proper settlement because of their problems . It’s a shambles.”

Councillor Al-Hamdani, who has also written to some of the mobile phone suppliers on behalf of residents, said: “This is simply not good enough. Denshaw is an isolated village, and people cannot be left without a signal for this length of time. It’s not just poor service, it’s potentially a safety risk.

“Affected residents need to complain about this to their mobile phone supplier – or the resolution scheme. They should also be checking their contracts to see what compensation they are eligible for.”

Affected people can find out which resolution scheme their supplier is signed up with at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/adr-schemes