It’s difficult to imagine how, in the 21st century, people can be deprived of basic landline and mobile phone access for days on end, especially when they live within a stone’s throw of one of the state’s largest cities, Newcastle.
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But that’s the reality that dozens of Hunter residents have faced in recent months.
The Mercury reports that residents in Gresford, Vacy and Paterson have had no service on their landline or mobile phones whenever storms are in the area.
Having no phone service for several days at a time can mean loss of income and make it difficult for people to reach help in case of emergency.
It also contributes to a feeling of isolation in communities.
Telstra says recent outages have lasted a few days at most, but that’s not the case for business owner Cliff Fairlamb, whose East Maitland denture clinic has been without a landline since January 5.
It has meant lost revenue for Mr Fairlamb because he can’t receive appointments over the phone or keep up with his online bookkeeping, his eftpos machine won’t work and he can’t provide receipts to customers.
Mr Fairlamb’s case is an extreme example, but it shows that more needs to be done to fix telecommunication problems in the Hunter.
It may be true that most outages caused by the major January storm lasted less than a week, but residents’ frustrations are understandable – every hour of isolation has an effect.
It’s clear that more should be done to ensure these problems don’t continue in the Hunter, given that many residents live on properties that aren’t easily accessed, especially when there is a severe weather event.