Phones can be a lifeline for people such as artist David Humphreys who lives in Bramber.

He relies on it to talk to clients, yet he was cut off for nine days after work started on a water main near his home.

Other people in the area were also affected by the disruption after an underground cable was severed.

No one is absolutely sure how the fault occurred. It might have been caused through the water main work or it might not.

But it is totally unacceptable these days for repairs to a simple fault to have taken so long, causing huge inconvenience for Mr Humphreys and his neighbours.

Occasional disruption is inevitable. But BT needs to ensure delays of this length do not happen again.