Dear Valued Customers,
Telstra is working to manage the significant impact to services that has occurred as a result of a series of severe weather events in the Herbert and Lower Burdekin District and parts of the Central Coast-Whitsundays and North Tropical Coast and Tablelands Districts of Queensland on or about Thursday 3 March 2016 through to Monday 7 March 2016.
Due to the effect of damage to the telecommunications network by a low pressure system, there has been a significant increase in the number of services being reported as faulty. As a result, there has been some disruption to service and delays to normal installation and repair activities.
QTelecom 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 is referred to in the BOM Severe Weather Warning issued for 3 March 2016 initially at 10:46 pm Thursday, 3 March 2016, reference number IDQ20032; 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 2,400 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 10 April 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. QTelecom regrets any inconvenience caused to customers and thanks them for their patience while this work is being undertaken.
QTelecom services encompassed in this exemption are in the area bounded by and including, but are not limited to, the area starting at Deeral following the coastline south past Innisfail, Ingham, Townsville, Bowen and Mackay to McEwens Beach. The area then heads southwest past Oakenden to Hazledean, northwest past Dalrymple Heights and Dalbeg to Mt Fox. From Mt Fox the area heads north to Millaa Millaa then northeast back to Deeral. All suburbs and
towns, off shore islands and coastal areas serviced by QTelecom 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:
07 4030 2000 To 07 4030 2999
07 4043 2000 To 07 4048 5999
07 4061 0000 To 07 4088 9999
07 4232 6000 To 07 4232 9999
07 4411 0000 To 07 4431 2999
07 4720 1800 To 07 4729 8899
07 4750 0600 To 07 4799 9999
07 4840 0000 To 07 4846 9999
07 4898 0000 To 07 4898 6999
07 4940 0000 To 07 4969 9999
07 4998 5000 To 07 4998 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 QTelecom is notifying customers that normal installation and repair time frames may not be met during the period from 7 March 2016 to 10 April 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, Telstra will be exempt from complying with performance standards during this period.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
With thanks,
QTelecom Customer Care Team
