Orange mobile customers in Surbiton will have to wait until Christmas to use their phones, as Orange has had to find a new site for its phone mast.

The Comet reported the matter at the beginning of October, when a spokeswoman for Orange apologised for the gap in coverage, saying it was due to the upgrading of the phone mast.

But a recent enquiry revealed the mast was changing location as well as being upgraded.

A spokeswoman for Orange said: "We lost the site when the land owner gave us notice and asked us to leave immediately which gave us a gap in coverage. We now have a new site but it has taken some time because we had to submit a new planning application and go through a consultation."

She said the mast has undergone an upgrade.

She said: "We took the site as being upgraded as it was a 2-G site and the new one is a 3-G mast, so in theory it was an upgrade. We are hoping to have it running before Christmas."

Customer Paul Williams said the gap in coverage has been unacceptable. He said: "It's been months now that there has been no service on my Orange mobile. This is unacceptable. I have found one spot in Surbiton where I can make calls, but it involves standing in the middle of the road outside Costa Coffee."

He says that he has not received any explanation or reimbursement from Orange and says that staff in the Kingston Orange shop cannot offer an explanation either.

The Orange spokeswoman said: "We haven't written to the customers or offered them a refund. It would be up to the individual customer to contact our customer services department and then we would decide on each individual case as and when. People don't want masts to be built but when they lose coverage they complain, so it is nice to see the other side."

- You can have your say on this story at surreycomet.co.

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