Taree vandals cause north coast internet outage

Telstra is blaming vandals in the Taree area for an internet outage that hit parts of the north coast last night and may be ongoing in some areas.

Echonetdaily understands that two cables in one of the telco’s access pits at Taree were literally hacked apart and set on fire.

Telstra says the vandalism not only knocked out the primary signal to Taree but also damaged other cables going to other parts of the network.

Police were called to the site overnight and are investigating.

‘We are aware of an issue beginning overnight that is impacting services in Taree and some centres along the north coast, including Lismore and the Bryon Bay area,’ a spokesperson told Echonetdaily.

‘Our fibre crew has identified two cables in a common access pit in the Taree area that appear to have been intentionally damaged by a third party.

Telstra says further delays are attributable to the fact its staff had to wait until the fire was put out to start fixing up the damage.

‘Our crew waited for Fire and Rescue NSW to declare the site safe before commencing repairs to the cables,’ the spokesperson said.

‘Given the extent of the damage, our crew has been working through the night to access and repair the cables and hope to restore services as soon as possible.’