GORDON Allerton of Auto Lock Newcastle is off to Canberra to complain about repeated losses of telephone services he says are ultimately caused by problems with the National Broadband Network.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The owner of the Islington auto accessories business featured in a series of articles in the Newcastle Herald in June, saying his firm had been left without fixed-line services for 50 days because of three periods of disconnection caused by NBN work.
Now, with a fourth disruption, Mr Allerton says the total is up to 66 days of outages in 15 months. He says Optus provides a mobile backup but customers are often unable to get through and the internet service is patchy.
Mr Allerton said the fibre-to-the-node nature of the NBN meant that technicians had to access the nearby Telstra copper-wire pit to connect properties to the broadband, a process that apparently accidentally impacted other customers.
“They connect someone to the NBN and then we get our telephone lines cut off,” Mr Allerton said.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said telephone and internet access was a business essential.
“The constant back and forth between Telstra, Optus and NBN Co means no one is taking responsibility and Opposite Lock is left with no timely resolution in sight,” Ms Claydon said.
Mr Allerton said Optus had paid “loss of business” compensation of $9800 after an earlier outage, when the NBN Co denied the disconnections were related to the broadband rollout. This time around, he said NBN Co had “finally” admitted it was their problem.
An NBN representative said she was waiting for information on the Opposite Lock case but said “the vast majority of connections go really well”.
