A COUPLE are frustrated that despite 45 calls during six weeks to BT they still have not got a phone line.Phil Rogers and his fiancée Sandra Taylor moved from Framlingham to Old Newton, near Stowmarket, and booked BT for October 11.

By John Howard

A COUPLE are frustrated that despite 45 calls during six weeks to BT they still have not got a phone line.

Phil Rogers and his fiancée Sandra Taylor moved from Framlingham to Old Newton, near Stowmarket, and booked BT for October 11.

But they were told firstly that an engineer would call, then that new lines had to be fitted, and then that there would need to be approval gained from the local council to dig up the road.

Mr Rogers and his fiancée, who marry this month and want to have a landline to use as they get closer to the big day, are both self-employed couriers and rely on the phone for work.

Mr Rogers, 53, has lodged a complaint with BT and said: “I have made 45 calls to BT, most from my mobile, and on one occasions I spent an hour in a call box because I was fed up using the mobile.

“BT have said they will compensate us at £1 a day for using my mobile, but it costs more than that just to phone them. I have the mobile phone bill from hell at the moment.

“If I ran my business like this I would be out of business and would be out of pocket by a long way.

“I find this desperately frustrating, I do not want their apologies, I want a telephone or a date when I will be getting one.

“Queen Victoria is no longer on the throne, this is the 21st century, and you expect things to work.

“I do not mind two weeks off the phone, you make allowances when you move, but this has become a farce.''

A BT spokesman said the firm had reached capacity in that specific area and workers are now laying new cabling.

He added they have had to dig up two separate stretches of land and said the latest digging work covering 140 feet will be started today, with cabling then laid and the network connected to the new cabling.

He said: “We endeavour to be as quick as possible and we would have expected to be quicker than this, but in this case it is not a quick job.

“We will be there for a couple of weeks and I can not say when the work will be finished.

“We are diverting calls to a mobile and we are contributing towards mobile costs.''