A number of business and residential customers experienced problems making inland long distance calls yesterday afternoon and last night, especially between Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

The difficulties arose because a JCB, working on a construction site at Citywest Business Park, severed one of Telecom Eireann's fibre optic lines. Among those affected were businesses and Eircell mobile phone users. Some client of Telecom's competitors which lease lines from Telecom were also affected.

A Telecom spokeswoman said last night that the problem occurred around 4 p.m. yesterday. The line was broken in several places and engineers were working to fix the problem. She said service should be restored completely this morning. In the meantime, she said, the calls were being routed using other paths.