Eircom experienced yet another glitch yesterday when some 20,000 irate southside customers in Dublin were without phones for two hours.
A spokeswoman for Eircom "apologised profusely" on behalf of the company for the inconvenience suffered by customers bereft of landlines. The cause was traced to a problem at the Crumlin exchange "which went completely down because of a technical fault", the spokeswoman said. The fault occurred at 6 p.m. and was rectified by 8 p.m., she added.
Areas affected included Crumlin, Walkinstown, Ballyboden, Tallaght, Drimnagh and Templeogue.
The phone lines hit included those whose numbers begin with the following digits: 450, 451,452, 455, 7092, 7099, 465, 560, 563 and 494.
The precise nature of the fault will not be known until today, according to the company. However, a full technical crew were on standby last night in case of a recurrence.
A previous serious disruption to the network in Dublin on November 19th left thousands of users without a service in the south and centre of the city.