LIMEKILNS resident Deborah Oude Avenhuis lives less than 25 kilometres from the Bathurst Post Office but says she might as well be in another country after she lost her home phone line recently for the fourth time in six weeks.
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Ms Oude Avenhuis says the home phone lines in her area are lost each time there is a power outage – often, she says, so Telstra can do maintenance – and it can then take days for the lines to start working again.
The problem is compounded, she says, by the fact there is little or no mobile service in the area.
“We are in a rural area and it's [a home phone] an essential service,” she told the Advocate after the most recent problem with her home phone line.
“Not only is it inconvenient, but you can't do all the things that you have to do online.
“It’s affecting people who run businesses at home and it’s affecting kids studying for school.”
Ms Oude Avenhuis said she had spent “hours and hours” reporting faults, but she had not been satisfied with the response.
“They just roll out the spiel of platitudes,” she said.
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She said there were 60 houses at Limekilns affected by the problem of home phone lines being lost and not being reinstated for days.
“Every time we have a power outage, the local exchange falls in a heap,” she said.
“We have all complained, but they are not fixing the problem.”
She said Telstra needed to stop “patching” and start fixing.
“They [Telstra] need to get to the root of the problem,” she said.
“And the biggest problem is Telstra are not maintaining their infrastructure.”
The Western Advocate contacted Telstra about Ms Oude Avenhuis’ concerns and was told the telephone exchange needs power to run.
The Advocate was told there are battery backups in place but they are only short-term and if a site is left without power it then requires technicians to go out and replace hardware.
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