A rash of Telstra exchanges have been hit by power outages, although the network itself is -holding up pretty well," Telstra spokesperson Michael Patterson told ZDNet Australia today.
-The south coast is the worst affected area," he said, with telecoms services in Jervis Bay, Malua Bay and Bewong still affected in the wake of the bushfires. -Telecommunications services aren't being able to be provided," Patterson said.
According to Patterson, Telstra is working alongside emergency teams to repair services for affected customers, and over the last 24 hours has restored services to Huskisson, Sanctuary Point and Ulladulla. Communications in the Blue Mountains have also largely been restored.
However, access to some sites remains a problem as fires continue to burn out of control, with the telco giant requiring a fire brigade escort to get to some areas, Patterson said.
-We're doing all we can to minimise disruption to essential telecommunications services," he said, adding that Telstra has 175 staff working in the south-coast region.
Meanwhile, the country's second largest telecommunications carrier Optus has had four mobile base stations severely damaged by the unstoppable bush fires.
Three base stations have been affected on the south coast's Boyne Trig, 12 Mile Peg and Vincentia and it's believed the base station at Vincentia has been entirely destroyed, an Optus spokesperson said. One base station at Helensburgh, in South Sydney, has also been impacted by blazing fires.
-There's no mobile communications in the areas these base stations cover, the spokesperson said.
Once these areas have been declared safe, Optus recovery teams will go in and assess the damage, while mobile base stations -on wheels" will be used as emergency replacements.
