“You can’t get anything at all now unless you are standing at an open window and, even then, the phones have started cutting out in the middle of calls,” explained one member of the family.

He told the Tele his daughter had spent three hours on the phone to the company, trying to find out what was happening, without success, and his own repeated calls to T-Mobile were equally fruitless.

Eventually, in desperation, he told the company that if the problem could not be corrected quickly, he would prefer to cancel the family’s three mobile phone contracts.

However, he was appalled by the company’s response.

“I was getting nowhere, so I said I wanted to cancel the contracts because I was not getting a proper service,” he said. “I was told we could cancel, but we would still have to pay for the remainder of the contract.”

He estimated the family pays around £150 each month and, with a significant period still to run on the contracts, that would leave them considerably out of pocket.

He said T-Mobile had told him he would have to pay up because the problem only affects one area of the city. However, he said, that area covers not just his home, but also family schools and workplaces, meaning their mobile phones could not be relied upon to deliver essential calls.

Last year, T-Mobile apologised to customers in the north of Dundee after removal of a 75-foot mast in Strathmartine Road caused disruption to services and reports of weak signals in the Kirkton and Downfield areas.

At that stage, the company said it was trying to find a replacement site to boost the signal.

A spokesman from T-Mobile said, “We have looked into reports of issues with network coverage in the Downfield area of Dundee. T-Mobile installed a temporary cell site in the area to ensure consistently good coverage. This was recently removed after discussions with the local council and objections from local residents.

“We are currently making progress with the implementation of a network sharing agreement with the mobile operator 3UK. This will enable us to deliver 3G voice and high-speed data services to 98% of the UK population by 2010.

“Dundee is included in our plans to provide unrivalled network coverage.

“However, network integration activities have yet to start in the area, making it difficult to be precise about potential improvements in coverage in a specific locality.”