Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo said the fires had caused “substantial damage” to exchanges, mobile base stations and cabling. He said Telstra had lost communications to five exchanges and estimated that 18 base stations were down, disabling “thousands of phone lines and broadband internet connections.” Up to 200 Telstra employees are working to repair the damage and restore services in Victoria, as well as flood-ravaged Queensland in northern Australia. Staff were working closely with emergency service crews to ensure they retain connectivity, Telstra said.
Rival Optus has restored a number of mobile sites, but 16 Victorian sites were still down, and other sites are affected by power loss. The full extent of the damage is yet to be determined, an Optus spokesperson told telecomasia.net. A number of smaller ISPs who use the bigger players’ infrastructure have also been affected by the outages. Simon Hackett, managing director of Internode, told telecomasia.net that outside the capital city of Melbourne it leases all its connectivity from both Telstra and Optus. Internode is experiencing network disruption, but no more than Telstra and Optus, he said. Repairing the damage is “very much in [their] hands,” he said. Read more.
Comments are closed.