Slow progress for Telstra repairs

Stuart Ware Electrical project manager Dennis Dalla-Libera waits for the telephone connection to be restored to the South Grafton business.

SOME businesses in the Grafton area continued to struggle without phones or internet yesterday as Telstra technicians worked on a telecommunications pit damaged by vandals on Saturday morning.

While some areas in town had been restored, others, such as the industrial estate on Swallow Road, South Grafton, remained crippled through lack of phone or internet services.

Stuart Ware Electrical project manager Dennis Dalla-Libera said the Swallow Road business was still without phone, fax or internet and was struggling to keep up with everyday tasks.

“It’s affecting businesses such as ourselves; we’re really struggling with no communications,” Mr Dalla-Libera said.

“We’re having to hand-deliver quotes to people and it’s costing us extra money.”

Fortunately there was evidence of progress being made yesterday, with Bunnings South Grafton reportedly having its phone and internet service restored.

The telecommunications pit was badly damaged early on Saturday when vandals piled branches in the pit and set it alight.

The resulting damage caused the interruption of 6000 phone lines, 18 mobile phone towers and about 2000 broadband connections.

Telstra CountryWide North Coast general manager Michael Sharpe said the repair was a slow process due to the complicated infrastructure involved, but he expected full service to be restored by tomorrow.