Work is under way to reconnect phone lines

One of the 480 householders hit by the fault said he had lost his only form of communication and called for BT to give compensation to those affected.

The phone lines have been down in and around Tettenhall since August 5.

By Friday, the number of properties affected was reduced to 340, and although BT bosses are now re-connecting customers, they have admitted they do not have a date when the issue will be fixed.

Temporary traffic lights were installed at the junction of Hordern Road and Aldersley Road over the weekend as engineers dug up the carriageway in a bid to resolve the problem. Julian Vernon, of Pendeford Avenue in Claregate, is among those to have been left without a phone line.

The 70-year-old said his phone line had returned briefly on Friday afternoon but was not working again on Sunday.

Mr Vernon, a retired manager at an insurance company, said: "A lot of people my age don't want or need the internet or mobiles, they depend on their landline.

"People who don't have these things rely on their landline. That landline could be quite literally for them, a lifeline. What do they do if they need to contact someone in an emergency?"

He said he knew of one resident who had been forced to contact family in Australia by mobile phone due to their phone line being down, which had cost £12 for 15 minutes. Mr Vernon said he hoped BT would recompense the customers who were left without their phone lines.

BT spokeswoman Amy Walker apologised for the disruption. She said: "Engineers spent much of last week trying to install a new underground cable without success and have established that new underground boxes and duct are required. We also need to clear much of the existing duct. All the civil and heavy engineering were completed over the weekend as planned and the painstaking job of running new cable and reconnecting each customer back on to it one by one has begun."