A PROBLEM with a a mobile phone mast wiped out the O2 mobile phone signal in Belcoo this week – leaving local business owners counting the cost.
The issue is thought to have originated on Tuesday of last week, and carried on through until Sunday when the issue was resolved.
Adrian McCallion of Cloud9Digital, relies on his mobile phone for work, and said that he has been badly affected by the cut to services in the village.
“I use it constantly for work and the only way I could use it was by using O2 roaming. A lot of people in the surrounding area were affected. They had the same issue – and some of the boys on the football team were having the same trouble,” he said.
“It was difficult trying to run a business – I’m probably on the phone two hours in a day trying to get business and when that’s down, you’re struggling.”
And, Donal O’Cofaigh, who lives in the village and works from home, added that it was a big issue for businesses and local people.
“I had clients who were looking to take forward pieces of work and they couldn’t get hold of me and I had to come into Enniskillen to dial them back,” said Donal, who operates Integral Consultancy.
“It was very awkward, and I couldn’t get messages – these days everything is on the mobile phone – and it’s a nightmare if there’s a problem there.
“It was causing problems for businesses, it was causing problems for local people – and it seemed to go on for ages.”
And, he added that he felt people deserved something back from their mobile phone service provider.
“It think they owe people something in return, but I don’t know if they’re going to give it to them – we’ll see.”
An O2 spokesman said that their mast in Belcoo was experiencing intermittent service last week and that the issue has now been resolved: “Our mast in Belcoo was experiencing intermittent service last week and we apologise if some customers in the area accidentally roamed onto a network in the Republic of Ireland. The problem has since been resolved.
“Customers living near the border who want to eliminate the possibility of inadvertent roaming may wish to change the network setting on their phone to manual so it only locks onto the O2 UK network,” he added.
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