VODAFONE customers in Christchurch say problems with their 3G network are becoming “hopeless”.

Since May, many customers of the phone network have suffered with their 3G dropping in and out intermittently, with some people not having any service for prolonged periods of time.

Forums for Vodafone customers have more than 450 posts from different people reporting issues since earlier this year.

Rob Swain, 49, who lives in Highcliffe said: “We've had lots of problems since May.

“It used to be a really, really good service here with strong signal, now it's awful.

“They are trying to fix it and I've had engineers round my house and spent half the day here, but they are still struggling to sort it.

“When you speak to them they say it's come from when they updated the system in May. It's not been the same since.

“The signal jumps around all over the place. It's frustrating when you are paying for a 3G service but not getting any signal when you are at home.”

Rob added: “It's got to the stage where it is absolutely hopeless.

“The Vodafone staff are really nice people it's just a major problem they just can't sort it out.”

Others living in Burton, Christchurch and parts of Bournemouth also say signal has been an issue with some residents being told the problems started when masts were updated for the Olympics.

Rob Matthews, unit manager at Vodafone said: “We would like to apologise to all of our customers who have been experiencing issues with using their mobile devices in Christchurch.

“We have had a coverage improvement plan for a number of weeks where we have been undertaking drive trials and visits to customers properties to collect performance data on the network.

“We continue to receive data on a daily basis and are analysing this and making network improvements where appropriate.

“We will continue this process until service is fully restored.”

Their complaints come on the day superfast 4G signal is launched in 11 cities across Britain, including Southampton.

Vodafone launched a "4G phone promise" last week, offering customers the chance to bring an eligible phone into any store and have 70% knocked off their remaining contract, in exchange for taking on a 4G device.