Telstra plans repair to North Bundaberg

Temporary cable for 400 homes.
Telstra has sped up plans to reconnect some 900 premises in North Bundaberg to fixed-line services by Wednesday this week.

North Bundaberg residents have experienced repeated outages to broadband and telephone services since early December due to a damaged connection underneath the Burnett River.

The telco repaired connections to approximately 500 customers last week using a slave cable and planned to install a second, temporary cable this week in order to re-connect all customers to fixed broadband and telephone services while a permanent repair is carried out on the main cable.

"All customers will have services back by about Wednesday lunchtime," Telstra Country Wide general manager for Country Coast and Capricornia, Doug McClure, told iTnews.

The temporary connection will be in place until borers re-dig a conduit under the Burnett River connecting the north and south areas of the Queensland town.

"From our technicians' point of view, they're still confident they can get completed by February 17," McClure said.

Repeated attempts to repair the under-river connection had been met with several failures however, with one avid photographer snapping a Telstra technician inspecting a cable that had floated to the top of the river last week.

Local publication News Mail reported attempts by residents to use tin cans and string as a home-made replacement for the downed connections.

A new conduit and cable to be installed under the riverbed should solve the problem, according to McClure.

"We apologise to local households and business for the interruption of services," he said.