TELSTRA’S bad luck continued yesterday when 10,200 customers in Portland, Port Fairy, Penshurst, Edenhope and Coleraine districts lost phone and data services after a fibre-optic cable was severed in Melbourne.
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It was the second time since the infamous November 22 Warrnambool exchange fire that a cable cut has blacked out Port Fairy district customers.
Ironically the line was chosen by Telstra to re-route parts of the south-west away from the main Warrnambool exchange to another in South Melbourne after the big fire.
Yesterday’s blow happened at 1.55pm when a main fibre-optic line in Melbourne’s western suburbs was sliced, apparently by an earthmoving machine.
Repair crews were working through the evening to repair the link.
“It’s an unfortunate consequence,” Telstra regional manager Bill Mundy said yesterday.
“The cost to repair a fibre-optic link is not insignificant and reinforces the necessity for contractors and property owners to dial before they dig.”
In December the south-west cable was cut at Meredith by a Golden Plains Shire crew.
