Hardware fault gets hooked with disruption

TELSTRA customers in Bridgewater were without internet connection for more than 48 hours late last week.

But after first told they faced a 10-day wait before the fault would be repaired, Telstra on Friday afternoon confirmed repairs would be made that day.

Some businesses had been forced to use mobile connections for eftpos transactions or offer only cash transactions as a hardware failure saw service drop out.

Arts of Olde owner Ainsley McPherson said she had lost sales during the outage.

And resident Peter Poole told the Loddon Herald of frustration being without internet for more than two days.

He had received a message from Telstra saying the estimated time to restore connections was 7pm on February 24.

“Then on Saturday morning, my wife was walking past the modem and saw the green lights flashing again,” he said.

The Loddon Herald contacted Telstra last Friday morning after calls from frustrated customers in Bridgewater.

Four hours later Telstra said connection would be restored that day.

Regional general manager Steve Tinker said: “There has been an impact to ADSL internet in the Bridgewater area since Wednesday afternoon, due to faulty hardware.

“This is not affecting NBN services or Telstra mobiles. Telstra techs have investigated and ordered replacement hardware which is due to arrive this afternoon and we hope to have connectivity restored by the end of the day.

“As this was an unexpected issue, it is not something we could have planned for.

“We understand the importance of connectivity particularly for businesses for important things like eftpos and would suggest to potentially look at multiple connectivity options such as a landline and wifi in the event that an outage occurs,” Mr Tinkler said.

Meanwhile, Mallee MP Anne Webster Mallee says communities in her electorate had missed being part of a targeted round of funding for improved mobile phone coverage as the Federal Government favours it seats in Victoria and across Australia.

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced 54 target locations across rural, regional and remote Australia to be part of the $40 million Improving Mobile Coverage Round of the Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program.

The three Victorian locations targeted by the program are Gisborne South, in the Labor-held electorate of McEwen, Woodend (Bendigo) and St Leonards (Corangamite).

“Gisborne South is 40 minutes from Melbourne, Woodend is halfway between Bendigo and Melbourne and St Leonards is a half-hour drive from Geelong – meanwhile Mallee is the most isolated electorate in Victoria and loses out as Labor plays politics,” Dr Webster said.