A terminally ill man left without a phone line for three months claims he has been treated as a second-class citizen.
Paul Smith, 47, who has cancer, moved into a newly-built council flat in Cellardyke in early June.
However, he and wife Amanda are still fighting for installation of a phone line and broadband for themselves and nine neighbouring tenants in the Silverdykes estate.
They criticised Fife Council and BT Openreach, which has since apologised for the delay.
Paul, who moved from St Monans, needs a phone line to keep in touch with his GP and consultant and said mobile phone signal in the area can be poor.
He said: “It’s getting beyond a joke. We are being treated like second-class citizens.
“There are 10 houses here and not one of us has a phone line or broadband. We keep asking when it’s going to get done and we get fobbed off.”
Amanda said the delay was “disgraceful” and added: “My husband is terminally ill with cancer and we need a phone.
“We have to go back and forth to hospital and if I find any lumps on him I’m supposed to phone the hospital straight away, which I can’t do.
“The stress is not doing his health any good.”
The couple said they had repeatedly pushed builder Muir Homes, Fife Council and Openreach for action, but to no avail and Amanda said: “The council shouldn’t have put us in here, knowing this would take so long.”
An Openreach spokesman said: “We’re sorry for the delay in providing service at this new site.
“A main cable in the network feeding this site has developed a fault and we’re currently waiting for our planners to produce an alternative routing so that the residents can be given service.”
Despite Paul’s insistence that the council were informed of the issue when tenants moved in, affordable housing regeneration team manager David Robertson said: “The lack of phone connection in these properties has only recently come to our attention.
“We are working with the contractor and the utility company to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible for our tenants.”
Mr Robertson said he also understood Openreach had been on site over the last few days dealing the problem.
A Muir Homes spokesman said: “We sympathise with this resident’s situation but Muir Homes has done everything it was contracted and obligated to do in terms of all building work to prepare for connection and installation of all ducts.
“It is now BT’s obligation to get residents connected to the exchange. We have passed on the resident’s concerns and urged them to address the situation as soon as possible.”