BT engineers are investigating faults in an underground cable which has left people in the Evington area of Leicester without a land line.
The problem affected people in the Whitehall Road and Spencefield Lane area, including three schools, Whitehall and Oaklands primaries and St Paul's secondary, which were forced to rely on mobiles for communication with the outside world.
BT spokesman Paul Hayward confirmed that the trouble began on June 18.
He said: "We have an underground cable which has started to develop faults after water started to get into it. Engineers have been on site throughout to locate damage and plan what needs to be done to get services restored.
"Due to the location of the damage we will need to replace the section of cabling which will involve a deal of complex engineering works.
"We have 35 reported faults associated with this and are doing all we can to get services back up as quickly as possible and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
"We are hoping to have completed all works by the end of next week but this is dependant on how work progresses and if we hit any problems during excavations.
"It is important that those affected report to their respective service providers if they have not done so."
