AN IRRITATED town councillor has accused a telecommunications giant of ignoring the needs of Blaenau Ffestiniog after residents were left with no mobile signal for five working days last week.

From Monday to Friday (28 November to 2 December), EE service users were without mobile coverage and many customers were left feeling frustrated with the lack of updates on when they would start receiving signal again.

The problems arose as EE installed 4G services to the area.

Cllr Rory Francis said he was fed up of being “palmed off” by EE when he attempted to find out what was happening.

“EE said everything would be sorted by Wednesday morning. Then it was Thursday lunchtime, then Friday lunchtime and last I heard it was going to be Saturday morning!

“It was actually Friday night that services resumed but that’s only after I contacted the press. Perhaps that’s just a coincidence."

Cllr Francis was annoyed by the lack of information and the fact that telecommunication firms did not seem to understand how important mobiles were to rural communities.

“What with bank closures and other services departing Blaenau, it feels like we’re getting more and more neglected here.”

A spokesperson for EE apologised and said: “We upgraded a mast in Blaenau Ffestiniog last week. This caused some signal issues."

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