Debenham and Mendlesham in Suffolk without phone signal

The loss of signal was adversely affecting businesses in the mid Suffolk area and one woman who relies on her mobile phone to contact her doctor.

Customers of Vodafone and O2 were among those affected and it is understood other networks were also impacted.

The "nightmare" situation in Debenham, Mendlesham and the surrounding area first started on Tuesday, October 1.

A text message sent to one customer from network provider O2 blamed a phone mast in the area not working.

Dorling Transport run ten trucks (Image: Rob Dorling) Robert Dorling, who works at Dorling Transport, told the East Anglian Daily Times he was unable to operate from his office in Mendlesham due to the problem. 

"It’s a nightmare. It's very frustrating," he said.

"You’ve got little hope of getting to talk to anyone. To make it worse, when you have 3G signal in any area, that won’t support data and next to pointless. When running trucks, we rely on data constantly." 

It is understood the problem was affecting other networks, including Vodafone. 

Claire Goduti had to travel to Stowmarket to take a phone call (Image: Claire Goduti) Claire Goduti, who lives in Debenham, had to travel to her mother's house in Stowmarket in order to take an urgent phone call relating to a medical appointment. 

She first noticed that she was without signal last Tuesday, when her doctors were unable to contact her. 

"I have appointments by face-to-face or on the phone, and I completely missed it," said Mrs Goduti. 

"In this day and age we have moved on so far with mobile technology, and I don't have a home landline anymore. 

"We have not been able to use it at home for well over a week."

Gordon Coe, a fabricator and welder who runs Mando Metalsmith, was unable to keep in contact with customers about their orders. 

He said: "As a business I'm not getting notifications that orders have been made online, so I'm a day later dispatching. Customers can't get in touch when we are discussing custom orders and quotes." 

Gordon Coe has been unable to keep in contact with customers (Image: Gordon Coe) Mr Coe added that he had been told it could be another 10 days before the problem is resolved. 

O2 confirmed on Monday that the problem had now been resolved.

An O2 spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers in the Mendlesham area who may have been experiencing intermittent issues with their service. Following the replacement of an electricity meter, our engineers worked quickly to access the site and restore service levels to normal.”