An internet blackout that affected thousands of homes and businesses is set to end later.
Accidental damage to fibre optic cables meant up to 3,000 Openreach customers in the Maghull area of Merseyside lost landline and wi-fi access on Thursday.
The company said the workers carrying out work in Hall Lane, Maghull, caused “significant damage” to part of its underground network.
“We know how important it is for people to stay connected and we’re very sorry for the disruption this incident has caused,” an Openreach spokesperson said, adding the outage was due to end on later on Sunday.
Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, has called for an investigation to take place and for lessons to be learned to make sure such an incident does not happen again.
“Thousands of people have been without their internet since Thursday and this has gone on for a ridiculous amount of time,” he added.
He said it was a “really serious” matter as pharmacies and GP surgeries had also been impacted by it.
Esterson said most people had now been reconnected or were about to be reconnected, although he knew of some who were still offline.
“It’s ridiculous how long it’s taken to get it sorted out so I’m going to be asking questions of Openreach,” he said.
Joy Sinnott, who works at Meadows Pharmacy on Liverpool Road South near the excavation site, said the issue had caused “chaos”.
The business had to cope without a phone line, with one working computer and no card payment machines.
“It is crazy just how much everything depends on the internet,” Sinnott said.