Cut Telstra cable leaves thousands without internet

A Telstra cable that was accidentally cut in Sydney has caused a NSW-wide outage for thousands of customers, leaving some without service for more than 24 hours.

Mobile outages have been reported across Australia.

Mobile outages have been reported across Australia. Source: AAP

Thousands of customers across NSW have been left without internet services - some for more than 24 hours - after a Telstra cable was accidentally cut. 

Users from a number of internet providers in Sydney and some parts of regional NSW realised their ADSL and national broadband network services had dropped out about 11am Wednesday.

It is understood the cable was cut on a large development site in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood.

Internet provider Dodo informed customers about the issue on Twitter about 1pm Thursday, saying “technicians are in the process of repairing the cables, but it’s a big job. We’ve been told that this could take many hours.”
iPrimus also posted on Twitter saying Telstra technicians were repairing the cables, but could “possibly take a few more hours".
They also said, "a few of the main telecom cables in NSW were damaged, which has caused a wide-spreading outage across a number of different internet providers.”

A Telstra spokesperson told SBS News said they were in the process of repairing a fibre optic cable cut by a third party, which is impacting several thousand broadband and ADSL services as well as some wholesale services.

"Services are progressively restoring and repair work will continue throughout the day," the spokesperson said.

"We apologise for the inconvenience and are doing everything we can to restore services as quickly as possible."

ABC reports some customers may be without service for 48 hours.


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By Douglas Smith


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