Mobile phone customers in east Suffolk are demanding their provider explain the poor service they claim has worsened over recent months culminating in a 36-hour total blackout earlier this week.

Orange and EE customers in the Leiston area say they were left with no signal from Wednesday into Thursday afternoon – and no answers as to why it happened.

Malcolm Briggs, 67, said the blackout came as the low-point in a spell of increasingly poor service, which started in June and is yet to be resolved.

The retired security supervisor said other customers in the IP16 area had been venting their frustration over Facebook where it was rumoured the closure of a transmission mast in the local area was behind their coverage troubles.

“We’ve been with Orange for 15 years and it’s always been fine until this summer when the signal became poor in the middle of June.

“Phone conversations would cut out in the middle of conversation and signal would be so poor we couldn’t make calls.

“I reported it in June when I eventually managed to get through to someone and I’ve not heard anything since.

“They’ve obviously got issues, but all you want is for the company to be honest. If they admitted having major problems in our area and said it would take a while to resolve, please be patient, we will keep you updated, that would be fine, but they don’t tell us anything.”

EE, which owns Orange, said: “We’re pleased to report that service was restored yesterday evening after a technical fault was repaired by our engineers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to affected customers.”