An hour north on the Hume Highway, in the sparse fringe town of Wallan, the staff of a vet hospital have spent a month waiting for something to go really wrong.
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"The ability of my staff to do their job is severely compromised," says Dr Paul May, a veterinarian.
"It's just a matter of time before a patient becomes extremely ill because we've not been able to access their patient records and we give them the wrong medication."
In early 2016, May began construction on a 24-hour veterinary hospital that would service the Wallan and Kilmore area. He already has two clinics, but the new site signalled a major expansion.
As the excitement of the opening loomed, May contacted his Telstra representative to set up the phone and internet in time for opening on September 5.
By September 29, nearly a month later, the lines are still dead. And they're still waiting.
"We haven't had phone or internet service since day one, and I've just been told a possible date of October 17 for installation," says May. "It's the most stressful thing, I've ever been through."
Furry patients lose out
May says while he has been buttressed between Telstra and NBN representatives, he is worried about customers and patients.
The patient records for existing pets are on the server at his Kilmore clinic, relying on the internet for access.
In the meantime, they have been using pen and paper.
"We have been using a mobile phone to do business, which means we can't have multiple lines. It means the line is tied up and we can't call people back. It's just not professional or good enough for an essential community service," he said.
While his staff are explaining the issue to customers, May is concerned about customers complaining, giving the business bad reviews and possibly not coming back.
Fibre to the no can do
May says he has spoken to five or six people at Telstra and contacted NBN via phone and social media, with both parties saying the other is responsible.
After Fairfax Media contacted both Telstra and NBN, Telstra said: "Work completed by other contractors in the nearest pit to the clinic is not to standard. The pit itself is also damaged. Telstra still has ownership of this and will be completing its repair and remediation as soon as possible."
Telstra also committed to providing a complimentary interim service until the connection is up and running, but May says the dongle they have provide doesn't fix the problem of accessing patient records due to the need for a static and secure IP address.
This week marked the first birthday of NBN's fibre to the node rollout, and while hundreds of thousands of homes have activated the service, things still aren't perfect between the company and Telstra.
NBN has forecast connecting 600,000 premises this financial year (11,500 per week) and 900,000 in 2017-18 (17,300 per week). This is across all technologies, not just fibre to the node.
May says the Wallan area is technically switched on, but the activation is not as smooth.
"There has been a lot of problems with the activation, they've been doing street by street, they haven't been able to switch it on all at once."
