It was the third time in as many weekends this has happened at Maloneys Beach.

“It is like we have gone back to the 17th century,” Maloneys Beach Residents’ Association president Peter Hickman said. 

“Mars has better contact with the outside world; at least they have something working there.”

He said he had complained to Eden-Monaro MP Peter Hendy’s office.

Fellow Maloneys Beach resident Tony Beauchamp said that the community was “cheesed off.”

“This is costing us money,” he said.

“I trade on the share market online and this is costing me a fortune.”

He said he contacted Telstra, on whose infrastructure the internet and phone services rely, but was told they could not get a technician out to fix the problem until Friday.

“It’s crazy,” he said.

The outages are causing havoc for the Maloneys Beach Café and Cellar.

“We’ve had no internet since Saturday afternoon and no land line since Sunday afternoon!” co-proprietor Sylvie Siteaud said.

“It is terrible for us because there is no EFTPOS available and no possibility for our customers to call us for the order.

“Again we lost money!”

The outage has also plunged Nelligen residents into electronic isolation.

Graphic design student Olivia Preston  said she could not submit an important assignment.

“Lot of Nelligen residents have complained,” she said.

“This is unbelievably appalling.”

Ms Preston said she had to travel into McDonald’s at Batemans Bay “10 to 15 times a day” to communicate with lecturers.

“I’m on my third tank of petrol in 11 days, and I am on a student’s budget,” she said.

A Telstra senior corporate affairs advisor responded with the following on Tuesday:

“Fixed line and ADSL services at Maloneys Beach, and ADSL services in Nelligen and Bateman’s Bay, were all restored yesterday afternoon.

“This issue was caused by power failures to our local exchange, which impacted some of our transmission equipment. 

“We understand residents of Maloneys Beach have experienced intermittent issues with their ADSL service over recent weeks. We are confident we have now permanently resolved this issue, however our teams are conducting an investigation to find out if there are any systemic issues, with a view to preventing recurrences in the future.

“We apologise to customers in Maloneys Beach, Nelligen and Batemans Bay for the inconvenience caused and thank them for their patience.”