Severe Weather events impact service in the Hunter District of New South Wales.
Significant impact to services that has occurred as a result of a series of severe weather events in the Hunter district of New South Wales on or about Friday 17 February 2017 through to Saturday 18 February 2017.
Due to the effect of damage to the telecommunications network by large hail, heavy rain and damaging winds, 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 Early Warning Network at http://www.ewn.com.au/alerts/. Large hail, heavy rain and damaging winds are referred to within this site for Friday 17 February 2017 through to Saturday 18 February 2017 all of which were widely reported in the news media after the events.
Based on current information, the resumption date of normal service operations is expected to be 5 March 2017. This date is indicative only, however, and may be subject to change once the full impact of the severe weather conditions has been assessed. QTelecom regrets any inconvenience caused to customers and thanks them for their patience while this work is being undertaken.
Services encompassed in this exemption are in the area bounded by and including, but not limited to, the area starting at Perrys Crossing heading southeast to Glenworth Valley, south to Mount Kuring-Gai then west to Londonderry. From Londonderry the area turns northwest to Berambing, northeast to Mellong the southeast back to Perrys Crossing. All suburbs and towns serviced 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:
02 4560 0000 To 02 4588 9999
02 9652 0000 To 02 9658 8999
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 20 February 2017 to 5 March 2017 inclusive (based on 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.
