Angus villagers have been promised a fix is being sought for telephone problems that have plagued them for a fortnight.
But the bad news for the Broomwell Gardens residents in Monikie is that the glitch cannot be resolved until traffic management and roadworks are in place.
Some 16 homes in the community, which is on the outskirts of Dundee, have hit by problems for the past two weeks, with resident Graeme Brymer describing the situation as “ridiculous”.
“A couple of weeks ago I noticed the internet access was a bit slow, which happens quite regularly, but when I went to pick up the phone it was dead,” he said.
“I’ve got a new job so I wanted to be able to check emails and so on, and the best they could advise me was to try and go to a Sky hotspot.
“Fortunately, I managed to get down to Sainsbury’s and open some of my emails but a response like that makes you feel that they are just running roughshod over you.
“We’re still getting Sky TV but the internet access and phone is still out and I think other people in the street have had the same problems.”
Mr Brymer is a Sky customer and the issue was passed on to BT Openreach, whose engineers sourced the issue but now face further work to fully repair the 150-metre stretch of cable that is at the root of the problem.
An Openreach spokesman said: “A damaged underground cable is affecting services to around 16 residents in the Broomwell Gardens area of Monikie and engineers have been working to replace a 150m section of the cable. “Unfortunately, when work started they came across blockages in underground piping and these have now been cleared.
“Traffic management and roadworks are now required so we can complete repairs and we are putting the necessary arrangements in place to allow this work to go ahead as soon as possible.
“We’re sorry for the disruption to services meantime and would remind individuals affected that their service providers can offer support and assistance, such as line diverts to mobile phones while repairs are ongoing.”