Hundreds of people have signed petitions in south Kerry after large areas including well-known towns and villages on the Ring of Kerry were left without mobile phone coverage over Christmas. All networks appeared to be affected.
Stephanie Switzer who lives in the Black Valley said her mobile phone went down on Christmas Eve and only returned for a few hours on Thursday.
Her teenage children were given phones for Christmas, but “you might as well have given them a box”, she said.
Ms Switzer, speaking from a landline, said her mobile provider told her the masts were being changed to provide for the 4G networks, but people in her area had no network at all.
ComReg, the communications regulator, yesterday said it was to look into the matter.
Local TD Michael Healy-Rae, who is to raise the matter in the Dáil, said the areas worst affected were Blackwater near Kenmare and the coastal area in south Kerry, from Waterville to Castlecove, Caherdaniel and Derrynane, as well as all of the Black Valley in the heart of the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks.
“There are very few public telephone boxes available so people are left with nothing”.