As I discussed in my article in regards to the structural separation of Telstra, there have been some major issues with my own copper phone line over the last week.
For some time – (actually, the entire time of more than five years I’ve lived at our current address) – every single time a significant amount of rainfall is delivered, the nearby Telstra pits fill with water, and phone service goes down. DSL connectivity is usually still available, but becomes intermittent – and annoying.
After a massive downpour, it went down late-afternoon on Saturday November 27th. As usual DSL sync was available, but intermittent and certainly not delivering full speeds.
On the Sunday afternoon, a Telstra technician arrived to investigate. Engaging in a carefully scripted conversation with him, I determined that it has long been known by local Telstra engineers that our street has problems when it rains.
After peering into two VERY full pits, he stated “I don’t think it can be fixed this time, not without replacing all the lines.”
Mind you, no attempt to pump the water out of the pit was made – even if the lines were unservicable, you’d think that would have been a reasonable first step that would only have taken a few minutes. It might have helped, but we’ll never know now.
Then nothing until the following Wednesday.
Telstra arrived and replaced a pit three doors down the road, then a new cable was spliced into network within this new pit and then strung 35 metres along the gutter, with phone service and stable DSL sync returned at around 10am.
A large trench was then dug along the nature strip, and a PVC pipe that stopped at the corner of our property was laid. The other end of the new cable was spliced into the network in an existing pit – the same pit the new pipe stopped at.
Curious. Here is the spliced cable emerging from the new pit:
And travelling through a guard strip so people’s cars didn’t crush it:
And along the gutter:
On the Thursday, Telstra was around for a little more work, but nothing seemed to change. They certainly didn’t touch the cable, as my DSL sync was never lost.
On Friday morning, workmen arrived to replace the pit at the corner of our property, but the cable still disappears into the dirt and wasn’t disconnected. Here is the cable disappearing into the ground before the second new pit:
There was a single workman on site on Sunday, doing I know not what – certainly no disconnection and he was only there for about 30 minutes.
It is now Monday morning – (nine days since the failure) – and the work is still not complete.
Yes, perfect service is restored, but at some point, someone is going to have to disconnect the cable running down the gutter, run a new one through the PVC pipe which has been there since Wednesday, and re-splice at each end.
And the cable is lying exposed on the street, ready for some nefarious individual to tamper with it or sever it for a cheap laugh.
The grand total of works has taken about 8 or 9 hours – some of which seems to have been pointless – and all of this could have been completed in a single day, even after they took four days to actually start any repair work.
I mean, seriously, WTF Telstra? We are paying you to deliver this kind of service?
As I suggested in my previous article:
“Waiting [nine] days for my phone line to be fixed is unacceptable, but typical. Ultimately, Telstra don’t care because there’s nowhere else I can go for a fixed copper line. NBN Co will have to care … and the legislation will compel them to maintain the network.”
Nine days Telstra, and it’s still not completed! And you’ve known about the problems in our street for years!
The sooner Telstra are not responsible for the network, the better!