Calls for better network after village goes offline

Internet outages in a Surrey village left people "unable to carry out daily tasks" for two days, prompting calls for better connectivity in rural parts of the county.

Parts of Charlwood lost access to broadband services on Monday and Tuesday, with the impact amplified by poor 4G and 5G reception in the area.

The problems have led to the Dorking and Horley MP pushing for the government and companies to improve mobile signal in more rural areas of the constituency.

Openreach, which operates the broadband network in the area, apologised for the disruption and confirmed services were now working again.

Feargal Hogan works from home but had to travel to neighbouring towns to get signal during the outage.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It's been pretty poor.

"It was very difficult to get information about what was going on and when it would resolve itself."

Hogan said he used to run both fibre and copper to ensure there was a back up if one went down, but the older service has since been shut off, leaving the town to rely on its fibre connection.

He added: "When we were trying to call to report a fault we couldn't get a signal, we were having to drive to Redhill, or Horley."

MP Chris Coghlan said: "Several people in Charlwood came to me after being left without internet all day on Monday and parts of Sunday.

"People were unable to work or carry out everyday tasks, with some complaining that communication about the issue was non-existent from providers.

"The 4G and 5G coverage in this area is also very poor, leaving many stranded with no connection all day."

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