back to article THREE vans and FIVE people: that's what Telstra needs to fix one fault

The impact of weather on Telstra's ailing copper network has hit the headlines, with some parts of Canberra told they'll suffer outages well into February. The Fairfax Media reports that storms in early December led to 700 faults in the ACT and another 900 being logged in surrounding areas. The ACT isn't the only location …

  1. Shadow Systems

    So "An Act of God"...

    ...results in An Act of Plods?

    I'll get my coat.

    =-)p

  2. Tac Eht Xilef

    'Tis but a scratch!

    So, only a little strike then? No, not being sarcastic; that looks fairly gentle as lightning damage goes. You often see much worse in areas prone to direct ground-strikes.

    Trees - Mother Natures' MOVs.

  3. Eddy Ito

    "Surprise: lightning and copper don't mix"

    I disagree. Lightning and copper mix wonderfully, if only for very brief periods of time.

    1. Lyle Dietz

      Re: "Surprise: lightning and copper don't mix"

      Actually, they mix quite well for as long as the lightning is there; it is often whatever is at the end of the copper that doesn't mix well with lightning.

      I actually lost a COM port to a nearby lightning strike, the modem was fine, and there was nothing wrong with the rest of the computer, I just was never able to use that COM port ever again.

  4. William Boyle

    This is why

    This is why we need fiber to the premises for phone/internet/cable.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On the 5th day of christmas....

    My Telstra brought to me: 5 Techiiiiiiies.... 4 copper wires, 3 Small Vans, 2 modems and a huuuge bill in my mail box......

  6. Shall I raise my aspect now

    Well let's see. During that storm my service went out (it goes out pretty well every storm). Tried to tell this to the Telstra 'genius' but he would not have a bar of it.....

    So...

    He sends me a brand new modem to replace my perfectly functioning modem (which btw came back on line when they fixed the exchange fault)

    And I negotiated a credit of $120 for the outage.

    (I didn't have to pay for the replacement mode either).

    Stan

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "He sends me a brand new modem to replace my perfectly functioning modem"

      SOP. Lightning strikes tend to stress out componentry on everything attached to the line at the time.

      The modem may seem ok, but odds are good it will prematurely fail somewhere down the track.

      A long time ago I walked into a repeater station to find wire ends where all the line cards should be and what remained of the cards (and their connectors) embedded in the opposite wall 3 metres away. Direct hits take no prisoners.

  7. Colin Tree

    Smokin

    I've seen the plaster and phone blown off a wall, clean across the lounge room. At another home every electrical appliance blown and a 2 km Telstra underground cable fried all the way back to the local exchange, etc, etc, etc...... just keeps happening, we must get FTTP.

  8. Wombling_Free

    The top photo is wrong

    Thats what your connection box looks like AFTER Telstra have "fixed" it.

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