Skye health care workers hit by EE signal issues

EE mobile customers on Skye, including key healthcare workers on the island, have been left without a signal for more than a week as a result of “poor weather and power outages.”

The service provider, which is part of the BT group, claims to run the UK’s most reliable mobile network, however, staff nurses and midwifes have informed Radio Skye that their work and their patients have been impacted by the service issues.

Kilmaluag resident Eilidh MacLeod works as a community staff nurse based in Portree covering north Skye. She told Radio Skye that all NHS work phones use the EE network which has left community staff such as district nurses and home carers with no signal.

“I’m also on EE with my personal phone so when I am working within Portree I have no signal,” Ms MacLeod said commenting to Radio Skye.

She added: “Many of our patients don’t have house phones either.”

Linda Weir, who works a community midwife, also told Radio Skye that her work phone has been affected by the outage.

She shared a response from EE which stated that company was working with local power suppliers to rectify the problem.

Portree resident John Wilson, told Radio Skye that he has had no signal since 16th January.

On visiting the EE website last week, he was informed that the problem would be resolved within 12 hours.

However, while on a call with the company this morning he said that he was “shuffled about from pillar to post.”

Fellow Portree resident Rachel Beaton said: “I was informed on Sunday that works would be complete by Friday 27th. Like John, I was passed from pillar to post.

“They did apply credit to my account.”

Harriet Frayne, who also lives in the Skye capital, said EE had added money to her account to cover her bill this month, but told Radio Skye that the company had told her a few days ago that the service would not be restored for another 10 days.

Dani Broadbent lives in Uig and has a contract with EE. She noticed that her phone had no signal on Wednesday 18th January while she was in Portree.

She told Radio Skye: “I assumed with the snow a tower was affected and it would be fixed. This week I have been in Portree Monday and Tuesday for my children’s after school activities and I noticed I still don’t have any service. It’s very frustrating.”

Meanwhile, Mallaig resident Ross MacKay said there had also been problems with signal from EE in the Lochaber town.

A spokesperson for EE said that its engineers would be back on site on Thursday to continue to try to resolve the problem when it is hopefully safe to climb the hillside mast.

The company told Radio Skye that people who do not have connectivity and are in an emergency situation can call 999 from any network on their mobile phone, and that landlines remain unaffected.

The spokesperson went on to say that unfortunately they could not ever guarantee that infrastructure will be unaffected by weather but they were working as quickly as possible in the current adverse conditions to restore connectivity.

The company apologised for the temporary problems and recognised that any loss of coverage can be inconvenient.

EE are inviting any customer impacted to contact us to discuss compensation.

Customers can call 150 from an EE mobile. If they are calling from an EE landline, the number is 0800 079 8586 and from another provider they should call 0800 956 6000.

Article by Adam Gordon