RESIDENTS in a Dorset village are outraged after being left without a mobile phone signal for a week.

O2 customers who live in Frampton, near Dorchester, and the surrounding area have blasted the company after they were without a service from Wednesday until yesterday afternoon.

Michael Champion and his wife Bridget, of Southover Lane, both have contracts with the provider.

Mr Champion, a communications engineer, said: “I rely on my mobile if there’s an emergency when I’m working with machinery out on remote land.

“In such a rural area everyone becomes dependent on having a phone for emergency situations.

“We spend around £80 per month with O2; for that much money I expect better service than this.”

He added: “It’s disgraceful that their customer service was so bad – when I called it took ages to get through to an actual person and whenever I asked what they’re going to do to fix it the line went dead.”

Neighbour John Bednall said: “My daughter, Amber, who lives in London, was rushed into hospital and I didn’t get the message for a whole day because of this.

“She has just finished college and started a job and it’s outrageous that I couldn’t give her support and care when she needed me.”

He added: “Your mobile phone is the one thing you think you can rely on.

“O2 were incredibly unresponsive, I have never experienced a company being so arrogant and unhelpful.”

An O2 spokesman said: “We can confirm that there was an issue with O2 network coverage at Frampton.

“We apologise to customers inconvenienced by this and have now resolved the issue.”