A PENSIONER living in a remote location in the Tamar Valley was left high and dry with no connection to her family or the outside world after BT cut off her phone line by mistake more than a month ago.

Despite BT admitting fault and saying the problem would be fixed, 75-year-old Helen Dunster was without connection from November 10 until Tuesday this week and had been reliant on her neighbours and friends in Stoke Climsland, a mile away, to get messages to her family.

After being contacted by the Times on Tuesday, BT said that it had now ‘reconnected Mrs Dunster and had provided a dedicated point of contact’.

The whole experience has left Helen upset and traumatised in what should have been a happy period of preparation for her visit to America to see her children and grandchildren for Christmas.

‘I had letters in October from BT saying that my service had been taken over by someone else,’ explained Helen. ‘I contacted BT immediately and told them this was not true.

‘I have been a BT customer for 36 years with the same number and always paid my bills.

‘I have not had a phone line or broadband now since November 10 when they stopped the connection and I live in a very rural and isolated place, down a valley where there is no mobile phone signal.

‘I am really struggling with no means of communication with my family living in Somerset, New Zealand and America.

‘I have to rely on friends and neighbours to make calls. I had to walk to a neighbour’s house to ring my granddaugher to say Happy Birthday at 7.45am before she went to school.’

Helen said BT had given her several dates when she should be back on the network and it had not happened, with no reason given. The last was December 6.

‘Do they really not care and realise the stress this is causing?’ she said on Monday.

Helen said she had been visited by Openreach engineers on November 16 who said they couldn’t understand why she had not been switched on as everything was in place. Her broadband hub was glowing orange and Openreach white box showing three green lights.

BT told the Times on Tuesday that the connection was removed due to an error listed under the same postcode.

‘The customer’s phone line has been reconnected and we have provided a temporary phone number while the original phone number is restored in the next few days,’ they said. ‘We have spoken with the customer’s daughter to explain the situation and she is happy with the resolution.’

Helen said she was grateful to her friends who had all mucked in to help and to Rob and Heather Stewart who had contacted her family via Skype so she could talk to them in their dining room.