Telstra corporate affairs manager James Howe said yesterday the number of landline services still to be connected last night was down to the final 100.

The final connection will occur 18 days since the early morning fire at the exchange which threw the south-west into disarray and cost business an estimated $100 million.

Early estimates placed the number of landline services disconnected in the south-west because of a fire at the exchange at 65,000.

Mr Howe said all 17,000 internet services disconnected in the fire had been connected.

“They have been built from scratch,” he said.

Customers who experienced problems with their reconnected landlines, such as crossed lines, should ring Telstra faults on 1800 171 355, he said.

Mr Howe said up to 120 technicians had been working 12-hour shifts on a 24-hour roster at the Warrnambool exchange to rebuild its telecommunications.

The technicians had come from throughout Australia.

In other developments, Mr Howe said that Telstra had begun approving compensation claims for people for losses and costs they incurred because of the outage.

About nine claims for compensation, each valued up to $1000, were approved on Friday, he said.

Processing of claims for higher amounts would get under way this week.

Mr Howe said Telstra had promised a 15-day turnaround for large compensation claims.

It was mindful of the damage that had been done to the south-west economy because of the outage, he said.

“We want to get money into the economy to help businesses out during a busy period,” he said.

Telstra bills have been frozen during the period that services were damaged.

ehimmelreich@fairfaxmedia.com.au