BT blunder gives a village crossed lines

By nle marie nicole le marie nicole.lemarie@essnmedia.co.uk

There were crossed wires in one Dorking village this week when cuts to an underground cable took out phone lines.

BT (British Telecom) received 240 reported faults when there were cuts to an underground cable in Beare Green on Thursday last week.

But when the cable was repaired, some of the lines became crossed, confusing some of the numbers.

John Norton, from Red Arrow Cash & Carry in Horsham Road, Beare Green Court, who runs several offices in Beare Green, said: "All the phones in Beare Green went down.

"We have several offices and run three or four businesses from here.

"My secretary lives locally and she said the best part of Beare Green was out.

"People were coming into our shop asking to use our phones, but we were out too.

"It was difficult because people really rely on their phones."

Amit Patel, from the Londis Store, in Horsham Road, said: "After they got the phones back on, they crossed all the lines.

"They were down for a long time but they did divert a lot of calls to mobile numbers.

"It was very confusing at the time but it seems to be all back to normal now."

A spokesman from BT said: "In Beare Green, we suffered cuts to an underground cable, on the January 28, in the area, which has been affecting service.

"Engineers were on site with traffic lights to allow safe working the next day, but they encountered problems when connecting in a new section of cable, which lead to a number of crossed lines.

"They have continued to work on the problem and we currently have 20 faults outstanding.

"As long as we don't suffer any further problems, we hope to have all back in service by close of play today.

"At the peak, we had around 240 reported faults associated with this incident."