Phone chaos hits business

Published: 2 April 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

TELEPHONE services are still being affected in the aftermath of a Wednesday’s communications meltdown.

BT said it was restoring services but some customers would still experience problems today (Friday). It could not guarantee a full coverage over the weekend.

Tens of thousands of people across north and west London were left without functioning phones after the incident at the BT Bell Street, Paddington, nerve centre .

London Fire Brigade and Thames Water attended the flood said to be caused by an electrical fault which occurred during building work, sparking a fire.

BT said: “The flood water has been removed from the exchange building overnight and power supply has begun to be restored. We are now beginning to restore communications services to customers… Any customers needing to make calls to the emergency services who have a problem using their phones are advised to do so by using their mobile phone or using a friend or neighbour’s working phone.”

Traders in Marylebone High Street struggled to cope with the knock-on effect of only being able to take cash.

Adam Clarke, 33, at Daunt Books said: “The phone lines affect everything; credit cards, the internet. We didn’t turn people away though. We’ve been using the old-fashioned card machines from the 1980s.” 

Kim Powell, 35, at Mallon and Taub, designer glasses shop, said: “We couldn’t make any phone calls from 10am. We had chip and pin and internet, but we couldn’t take any appointments over the phone and couldn’t chase orders up.”