Thousands of Telstra customers have been left in the lurch today following a cable cut that has seen users all the way from Palm Beach in Sydney's northern beaches to the Queensland border unable to access landlines, mobile phones, Internet and data services.
The cable slice happened around 11 o'clock this morning seven kilometres north of Gosford. Telstra believes the blame lies with a construction company that it says will be liable for damages.
Australia's largest telco says it has people located all the way along the coast implementing "progressive patching". The estimated repair time is 9pm.
"Grafton is up at the minute and they're working of Coff's Harbour," a Telstra spokesman told ZDNet.
The telco said it was impossible to say how many customers were affected by the disaster but with 80,000 phone line services in Coffs Harbour alone, "it's going to be a fair few," the spokesman said.
Most Telstra customers in the affected region cannot access landlines, BigPond and data services, and mobile phone customers are suffering reduced capacity.
"Some landlines are working intermittently, others aren't working at all," Telstra's spokesman explained.
"Some people can use mobiles but they have to be persistent," he added.
Telstra said it would direct complaints and compensation claims to the construction company involved if it was at fault.
Telstra says an investigation is underway.
