A Haworth resident said a lack of accurate information from his mobile phone provider left him paying for a poor to non-existent signal for six months

Writer and publisher, Graham Smith, who needs his mobile for work, switched to Virgin last year after encountering similar problems with his previous provider.

But he claims the Virgin signal deteriorated badly from early this year.

“It’s been very frustrating trying to find out why this was happening,” he said. “I must have called a couple of dozen times, but you don’t get an answer unless you get through to the actual technical people instead of the call centres. You have to be really persistent.”

A Virgin Media spokesman responded: “We are liaising with our network partner to investigate Mr Smith’s report of limited coverage strength at his address.”

Mr Smith, who lives in Sun Street, said his Virgin mobile reception had initially been good. Once it began failing in February and March, he contacted the provider and was told its telecoms mast was out of order and needed to be repaired.

But the problem remained unresolved through spring and into summer, with phone conversations being cut off and callers unable to get through to his number.

Mr Smith said: “We used to have a perfect signal from within our stone-built house, but it got to the point where we needed to go out into the garden to use the mobile.”

He was eventually able to get through to a senior company spokesman last month, who told him Virgin could not re-commission the mast because it did not actually belong to the company.

“He told me I was free to leave Virgin without any penalty and go to another provider,” said Mr Smith. “That’s what I’m going to do, once I can find the best deal.

“This will have affected other people in Haworth as well. I know this is a rural area but it’s not as if we’re in the back of beyond.

“I just want to be able to pick up my mobile and have a decent signal instead of seeing ‘no service’ all the time.”