Perth and Kinross Council phonelines disrupted by BT fault

A hardware fault in the telephone exchange in Perth caused a communication failure in the city and in many parts of the county on December 20.

BT landlines were either working normally or if called from a mobile, seemed to be permanently engaged.

Perth and Kinross Council ’s public-facing services were at the centre of the Monday morning landline outage.

PKC asked any residents wishing to contact not to try phoning the general landline but instead to use its 24/7 online portal, MyPKC.

There were fears that vulnerable people who depend on the PKC-run community alarm telephone link would be possibly endangered. PKC advised that these mainly elderly residents were being checked up on wherever possible.

Several secondary schools were experiencing problems when parents were unable to make contact to report pupil absences.

Conversely it appeared that many people found no issue at all when trying to make a phonecall, particularly if they were using a landline to call another landline.

Aberfeldy Taxis boss David Macdougall told the PA he’d had a “quiet morning” in Highland Perthshire as his landline was not working.

Perth and Kinross Council attempted to keep consumers informed with a message on Twitter and Facebook:

At 12pm the council advised it might be well into the afternoon before the problem was fixed.

“We are now estimating that service will be restored at 4pm today.

“BT are reporting widespread landline outages across Perth and Kinross area codes.

“Outages appear to be inconsistent with some calls failing completely and others getting a constantly busy tone, the experience also appears to differ for people using a landline to contact another landline (some of these calls are still working) or a mobile phone to contact a landline (largely getting a constantly busy tone).

“If you have vulnerable family, friends or neighbours who rely on a landline for contact, please check in on them. Please also be aware that this is impacting on community alarm services. We also have staff contacting vulnerable people known to our services, but please still continue to check in with people you know.

“Pupil absence lines operated by schools are also impacted, check text messages/emails from your school and/or their social media channels for alternative contacts for reporting absences today.

“Our Customer Service Centre opened as normal this morning as the issues do appear to be intermittent and your experience may be different depending on whether you are using a landline or a mobile phone to contact another landline.”

The council hoped to be all back to normal by late afternoon.

“In the meantime for all non-urgent Council services please remember you can use the MyPKC online portal to report these 24/7: https://my.pkc.gov.uk/”

A BT Group spokesperson said: “Following a suspected hardware fault within the Perth exchange early this morning (Monday 20), some phone services in the Perth and surrounding areas were unable to make and receive calls.

“Engineers worked quickly, and services were fully restored by 11am. Broadband and mobile phones were not affected.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”