The Ryder Cup could be thrown into “chaos” if Auchterarder’s Vodafone signal outage continues until the event, a local politician has warned.
Murdo Fraser made his comments after PC Euan Mitchell, the community engagement officer for the tournament, revealed he is uncontactable on his work mobile whenever he is in the village.
The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP said Vodafone must provide assurances the area will not be plunged into a telecommunications black hole during September’s competition, when the eyes of the world are expected to be on Gleneagles.
PC Mitchell is playing a pivotal role in policing arrangements for the Ryder Cup and colleagues, businesses and residents usually contact him on his mobile phone because he is often out of the office.
However his work mobile is on the Vodafone network, which has been down for almost three weeks.
People calling his number are directed to voicemail and it is often several hours before PC Mitchell receives the messages, when his phone connects to another mast.
He said: “One of the main ways for people to get in touch with me, generally speaking, is on my mobile.
“I have an email address and a direct dial office number but I’m not in the office a great deal, so the mobile number is best.
“But, given that I’m predominantly based in Auchterarder and Gleneagles, which is likely to be the most impacted by the Ryder Cup, I’m suffering problems and people can’t get in touch with me directly.
“If I’m in the Auchterarder area for the full day it’s later on that evening before I get their messages. It’s left me a little bit frustrated.
“I would prefer to be able to answer the phone, rather than having to explain to people at a later point why it’s gone straight to voicemail and why it’s taken me so many hours to get back in touch with them.
“Thankfully, we are still six or seven months away from the event, so people are not desperately needing to get in touch with me.”
Mr Fraser said: “The Ryder Cup will be the biggest sporting event ever staged in Perth and Kinross and if a similar mobile phone outage happens during the tournament then it will be absolute chaos.
“Vodafone must provide assurances to prevent this type of outage happening again, especially during September’s matches.
“Furthermore, for a police officer to be incommunicado due to the Vodafone outage is concerning and Vodafone must work day and night to resolve this problem.”
The loss of signal was caused after a landowner at Rossie Hill ordered the telecommunications giant to remove a mast to make way for a windfarm.
Vodafone was unable to make a new site operational before the old one, near Dunning, was switched off.
A Vodafone spokeswoman said: “We cannot guarantee a fault-free service no mobile phone operator can that is the nature of mobile technology.
“However, we work hard to make sure the service is available and customers can always check their area with our network and coverage checker.”