Broadband outage in Charlwood prompts MP's call for better rural mobile signal
Openreach says the fault has been repaired and services are back up and running
Large parts of Charlwood in Surrey lost their broadband in an outage, leaving people without a way to carry out everyday tasks, and the local MP is calling for better mobile signal in rural areas.
The outage affected homes, businesses and people who work from home.
Poor 4G and 5G reception in the village made the problem worse.
Openreach said the fault has now been fixed.
An Openreach spokesperson said: "We're sorry for the disruption caused by a fault on our network in the area."
The spokesperson said: "Our engineers identified and repaired the fault, and services are now back up and running."
Openreach was contacted about the situation and said it was aware of an issue that affected some of the homes in the area.
It did not provide a more detailed explanation.
The outage has led Dorking and Horley MP Chris Coghlan to push the government and companies to improve mobile signal in more rural parts of the constituency.
Mr Coghlan said: "Several people in Charlwood came to me after being left without internet all day on Monday and parts of Sunday."
He said: "People were unable to work or carry out everyday tasks, with some complaining that communication about the issue was non-existent from providers."
He also said: "The 4G and 5G coverage in this area is also very poor, leaving many stranded with no connection all day."
Feargal Hogan, who works from home, said he had to travel to neighbouring towns to get a signal during the outage.
Mr Hogan said: "It's been pretty poor. We had an outage in Charlwood Monday and Tuesday. It was very difficult to get information about what was going on, and when it would resolve itself."
He said he used to run both fibre and copper connections so there was a back-up if one went down, but the copper service has since been shut off.
Mr Hogan said: "It worked well because if the fibre went down the copper worked, and vice versa."
He said: "But about a month ago Openreach said they were shutting down the copper service. I was very annoyed and shopped around but couldn't find anyone to provide it, so had to let the service go."
He said: "A week later the whole village's fibre goes off and nobody knows why. There is no 5G coverage in Charlwood and the 4g is rubbish."
He added: "When we were trying to call to report a fault we couldn't get a signal, we were having to drive to Redhill, or Horley."