A RETIRED Kergunyah couple has been left feeling “isolated” and “vulnerable” after experiencing constant landline outages at their rural property.
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Jim and Libby Grant haven’t had a phone line since last Tuesday, but each time their phone cuts out they find themselves caught in the same catch-22 when it comes to having the problem fixed.
While Telstra owns all of the infrastructure for telephone lines and is therefore responsible for maintaining it, the lines are rented to wholesale partners.
“Telstra are responsible, but they are hiding behind these other suppliers,” Mr Grant said.
After three separate outages totalling 20 days in the past two months, Mr Grant has become frustrated he can’t approach Telstra directly to ask why service and maintenance to the lines is taking so long.
As a client of Southern Phone he is always redirected back to that company who said his landline should be fixed by Monday.
Mr Grant went to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman but was told he can’t lodge a complaint against Telstra, but must lodge it against his provider, which is not responsible for fixing faults.
“It’s a really serious issue for us as a retired couple,” Mr Grant said.
“Libby does a lot of work with the Red Cross and emergency services, it has left us really isolated.
“There are such long delays in getting simple things fixed, we waited five days for a fuse to be repaired once.”
The Grants have spent almost $1000 for a signal booster just to receive the standard wifi and mobile service.
Mr Grant wrote to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Indi MP Cathy McGowan in July last year and has only received a response from Ms McGowan.
After being contacted by The Border Mail, Mr Turnbull’s office responded to both parties with an apology explaining the situation.
“As the Universal Service Provider, Telstra must ensure that all people in Australia have reasonable access to standard telephone services and payphones,” Mr Turnbull’s statement said.
“Telecommunications service providers are private companies and their operations are commercial decisions.
“As minister, I have no authority to intervene in such operational and commercial arrangements or in complaints between service providers and customers.”
Telstra directed The Border Mail to Southern Phone when asked about the issue. They are yet to respond.