Some of our phone nos are missing

AN INTERNAL REPORT unearthed by the Mail on Sunday claims to show that Virgin Media has incorrect records on at least 1.5 million telephone subscribers. This could potentially cause problems if they dial 999 – the UK's emergency number.

Data on around 300,000 subscribers isn't just potentially wrong, it is missing entirely. Virgin Media has admitted that there is a problem and reckons it should be able to fix it by next year.

Unfortunately for the company, Ofcom –the UK telecoms watchdog - has become involved and has told the newspaper that "it would launch an urgent investigation because this would appear to involve a threat to the life and limb of Virgin customers."

Any operator's 999 database needs to be accurate in case a person calls the emergency services but is unable to provide their own address – for example, by feinting.

The problem seems to seem from the fact that Virgin Media's customerbase is drawn from two previously separate cable companies – NTL and Telewest.

The INQ would hazard a guess that the new company had problems migrating data from two systems to create a new 999 database.

Virgin Media denied being "irresponsible" in not revealing the issue earlier either to customers or to Ofcom. µ