RESIDENTS in Shrewton are frustrated at having no mobile-phone signal since May 13.

Vodafone says the problems with coverage are due to “tree growth which interferes with line-of-sight transmission”.

But it is not the first time residents have been affected by similar problems and Jan Pope has been forced to drive out of the village on London Road to make phone calls.

Despite Vodafone describing it as a “priority”, the signal is still down.

Mrs Pope said: “At first [Vodafone] kept telling us there was no problem.

“Then, when we finally got through to a helpful engineer, they told us it would be fixed by May 29.

“We had given them the benefit of the doubt but it has still not been fixed.

“We have got to the point where we have to get into our car and drive to make a mobile phone call because it is becoming very expensive making calls on the landline.

“Then to rub salt into the wounds we were billed by Vodafone last month. We are just sick to death of it.”

Vodafone apologised for the problems and said people who were unable to use their phones for three consecutive days were entitled to a partial refund.

A spokesman said: “We’re very sorry some customers in Shrewton are experiencing problems with our service.

“In the case of Shrewton, we are checking the line of sight end-to-end – the distance of nearly 10 kilometres – to ensure that all tree growth is accounted for, which unfortunately does take time since we need permission from landowners to gain access to various sites along the route.

“We are treating this as a priority and hope to get the service up and running as soon as possible.

“Even where coverage is normally good, network faults can occur. The nature of communications technology means we cannot guarantee a fault-free service.

“So much can happen to an individual mast, for example, power outages, adverse weather or equipment failure.

“We try to get these fixed as soon as possible but it can take time to get engineers on site depending on the location and the landlord.

“We then have to isolate the fault, and possibly order and fit replacement parts.”