FRUSTRATED residents in Mauchline were left without mobile phone coverage for almost a month.

Customers of mobile provider O2 had intermittent service for more than three weeks.

A spokesperson for O2 said: “We can confirm that there is an issue with our site that serves Mauchline.

“We are working as hard as we can to resolve it. We have had difficulty gaining access to the site but an engineer from our supplier will be there as soon as possible.

“We have worked with the landlord to gain access to the site. The engineer has attended and identified the problem. We have now asked our third party supplier to resolve it as a priority.” Despite the issue now seemingly been resolved many locals, including businesses, have been suffering from the lack of service, with several calling O2 to complain.

Local business, Milligans Coach Travel, based in Mauchline have been effected by the lost service for the last three weeks.

Manager and Company Secretary for the family run business, Morag Milligan, said: “We can’t really get in touch with our drivers because we both have O2 mobiles and can’t get a signal.

“Our emergency line is an O2 mobile so if a driver has any problems out on the road they can’t get in touch with us.

“It’s been causing us a headache over the last few weeks. It’s fine during office hours because 9-5 anyone can get us on the landline but when the office is shut all we have are the O2 mobiles. It’s a real inconvenience when our drivers can only contact us from nine until five.

“In our business we need to plan because of the drivers hours so it’s been really hard staying in touch and organising stuff.

“You’d think a company the size of O2 would be able to sort this kind of problem much quicker.

“We’ve had to use our landline for everything. If a driver calls us on it then clients can’t reach us to book coachtrips or holidays “My husband and I are both having a look over our O2 contracts to see if there’s any way we can get out of them because it’s really no use if we can’t use it.” The Chronicle has also been contacted by several other disgruntled residents unable to make calls or send texts. One local contacted us by Twitter and said: “Nearly a month without service for me which is pretty rubbish considering I pay £50 a month”.

Local MP Cathy Jamieson’s husband was also left without poor service. She said: “I am aware that a number of O2 customers and others such as Tesco mobile, which uses the O2 network have had problems with the signal in some parts of Mauchline. I understand that this was due to a fault in one of the transmitting aerials, and that service should now be restored.

“People are increasingly relying on mobile phones for business as well as personal use, so if anyone is still experiencing problems, please get in touch and I will follow up with O2.”