A lightning strike in Nowra cut Telstra internet connections and created chaos during the seaside town of Tathra’s peak tourist period.
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Doctors arriving for work at the Sapphire Coast Medical Practice on Wednesday found they were unable to access patient records, and moved all afternoon appointments to its Bega office after being told a Telstra technician would be visiting later in the day.
The interruption made EFTPOS transactions impossible for many businesses, and disrupted cloud technology used to take online accommodation bookings.
I would hate to see what happens in an emergency.
- Business owner Mark Whitbread
Telstra area manager Chris Taylor said the large lightning strike hit the Nowra exchange late on Tuesday, impacting power supply and damaging equipment.
"We've been on site repairing around the clock since 6pm and believe we now have the majority of services restored," Mr Taylor said on Wednesday morning.
"Our recommendation to customers is to reset their equipment and if they are still experiencing an issue, to contact their service provider and log a fault."
Mr Taylor said the Nowra exchange is one of the company’s major hubs, to which smaller hubs from Berry to Tathra feed back - creating the widespread outages.
Business owner and Tathra and District Chamber of Commerce member Rob White said the biggest problem is customers being told by Telstra there was no problem.
“It is badly affecting the whole of Tathra,” he said.
“Everyone in Tathra is calling Telstra to tell them the internet is down and they are being told it is a modem issue.
“Everyone’s been told the same.
“It is terrible happening this time of year.”
Many businesses were unable to provide online services or take electronic payments, and Melbourne tourist Nathan Talbett said he had withdrawn the final $20 from one of the town’s few ATMs early on Wednesday morning.
After spending an hour and a half on the phone with Telstra, Tathra Newsagency’s Brendan Michael said he was also told there was no problem.
“I’m losing money mate, it’s a bloody joke,” he said.
“People don’t carry cash. I lost five hours of sales this morning, I reckon it’s a couple of thousand dollars.
“In this day and age it’s unbelievable, fair dinkum.”
Mr Michael also said poor mobile phone coverage is a problem the government needs to solve quickly.
Poor coverage meant businesses like Mark Whitbread’s newly opened cafe, The Gap Espresso, was unable to use a backup connection for EFTPOS transactions.
“I think it’s ridiculous in a developed nation like ourselves,” Mr Whitbread said.
He said telecommunication and utility privatisation was not helping improve services for Australians.
“You get problems like this, where the companies do what they want, we can’t vote Telstra out,” he said.
“I can’t presume it’s their fault, but we rely on connectivity so much these days.
“I would hate to see what happens in an emergency.”
He said rather than turning customers away, he was serving customers on credit with the “trust they will come back”.
Tathra Post Office’s Deb Alker said she called Telstra early on Wednesday morning, and had been told the issue was with her modem which helps transmit data over telephone lines.
“They said there was no issue because there were no complaints,” she said.
Her business offers the only free of charge cash withdrawal service in town.
“I’ve been copping it all day, people want to get money out,” she said.