MOBILE phone signal has deteriorated in Winchester recently after a temporary mast was removed.

The mast, which is used by network providers including O2 and Vodafone, was taken down from it's location of the corner of Andover Road and Bereweeke Road, with no signs of a replacement.

Mobile phones using O2 and Vodafone's network have been struggling to get signal in the city centre over the past week.

On O2's service status page, a message for the Winchester area said: “Sorry, a phone mast close to you has been taken down.

“We've had to remove a mast near you. We’ve upgraded other masts nearby to help boost the network, but we’re sorry if you’re still having signal issues. We’re working to get a new mast up and running as soon as we can. Please bear with us. We’ll update you by December 3.”

Winchester residents have been complaining about the inconvenience this has caused on social media.

Gemma Leigh Weir said: “It has been terrible for a while now, hopefully it’s back up and running properly soon.”

Vanessa Cotte said: “I missed a very important phone call from the hospital on Thursday.”

The Chronicle have approached O2 for a comment.