A group of north-east residents will have to endure further delays before a working phone line can be installed at their homes.
Properties at St Leonard’s Court in Stonehaven have been living without land lines phone or internet connections since moving in at the beginning of the year.
BT say contractors encountered “technical problems” and that underground work will now have to be completed to instal communications.
A spokesman for contractors Openreach said: “The work was issued to our contractors for cabling and was due to complete on January 31.
“Unfortunately, the planned solution could not be executed due to technical difficulties with our existing network.
“As a result, the scheme had to go back to planning for a re-design and a new underground cable is now required from our street cabinet into the site.”
Residents of the 20 properties in the development – the former St Leonards Hotel – expected the issue to be resolved in February but engineers failed to turn up and subsequent attempts kept getting put back.
Michael and Sue Reid moved in at the end of January and said BT have never given them a reason for the delay.
They say they are fed-up at having to pay high mobile phone costs or go to the library to use the internet.
The spokesman added: “This is a complex operation as it involves cabling through carriageway jointing chambers, and due to the width of the road, it requires a road closure.
“Our contractors are liaising with the local council and the traffic management company to arrange this and we are pushing for a start date.
“We’re sorry it’s taking so long to complete this work but the technical difficulties we encountered meant we had to go back to the drawing board.”
Mr Reid, 76, said: “This is the first sort of explanation that any of us have had about what is going on.
“This is news to us and they have not told us anything about the work at all.”