Dear Valued Customers,
The purpose of this announcement is to notify you of a CSG exemption being claimed
by Telstra as a result of a series of severe weather events in the Sydney Metropolitan,
Hunter, Illawarra and South Coast districts of New South Wales on or about Monday 4
January 2016 through to Wednesday 6 January 2016.
Due to the effect of damage to the Telstra telecommunications network by severe
weather, there has been a significant increase in the number of Telstra services being
reported as faulty. As a result, there has been some disruption to service and delays to
normal installation and repair activities in the directly affected areas, and across the
Adelaide Metropolitan, Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island districts of South
Australia due to the need to redeploy Telstra staff to the affected areas.
Telstra apologises to any affected customers.
Information as to the nature of these severe weather events can be sourced from the
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). Heavy rainfall and flash flooding are referred to in the
BOM Severe Weather Warning issued for 4 January 2016 initially at 11:01 am Monday,
4 January 2016, reference number IDN20032; all of which were widely reported in the
news media after the events.
Telstra has identified that the effect of these circumstances may apply to approximately
7,600 services. Some of these services may not be installed or repaired within Telstra’s
standard time frames. The number of possibly affected services may increase or
decrease as Telstra assesses the full effect of the severe weather conditions. Based
on current information, the resumption date of Telstra’s normal service operations is
expected to be 14 February 2016. This date is indicative only, however, and may be
subject to change once the full impact of the extreme weather conditions has been
assessed. Telstra regrets any inconvenience caused to customers and thanks them
for their patience while this work is being undertaken.
Telstra services encompassed in this exemption are in the area bounded by and
including, but not limited to, the area starting at Middle Beach then heading northeast
to Wasleys, then east to Greenock. The area then turns southeast past Angaston
and Keyneton to Cambrai. From Cambrai the area turns southwest past Mt Barker
to Tooperang. The area then turns southeast to Goolwa and following the coastline
clockwise past Victor Harbor, Cape Jervis and Port Adelaide back to Middle Beach.
All suburbs and towns including metropolitan Adelaide, off shore islands and coastal
areas serviced by Telstra within these boundaries are encompassed in this exemption.
Services in the area mentioned above with phone numbers in the following number
ranges may have been affected:
08 7285 0000 To 08 7285 8999
08 7383 0000 To 08 7389 9999
08 7522 4000 To 08 7522 4999
08 8100 0700 To 08 8116 6499
08 8130 0000 To 08 8139 9999
08 8150 0000 To 08 8449 9999
08 8520 0000 To 08 8536 7999
08 8550 0000 To 08 8568 5999
08 8598 0000 To 08 8598 9999
As these circumstances were outside of QTelecom’s control, QTelecom is claiming an
exemption from compliance with time frames and performance standards required
under the Telecommunications (Customer Service Guarantee) Standard 2011.
Therefore we are notifying customers that normal installation and repair time
frames may not be met during the period from 7 January 2016 to 7 February
2016 inclusive (based on Telstra’s estimated recovery schedule correct at the time
of publication of this notice) and, under section 21 of the Telecommunications
(Customer Service Guarantee) Standard 2011, QTelecom will be exempt from complying
with performance standards during this period.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
With thanks,
QTelecom Customer Care Team
