A PARTIALLY blind pensioner and businessman are among the Armidale residents stranded without phone or internet for a fortnight after winds brought down an NBN cable.
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Brian Parsons, of Markham Street, has phoned NBN six times and his service provider 10 times after the broken cable was left lying on the footpath, creating a hazard to pedestrians. Eventually, he was forced to roll up the cable himself and fasten it to the power pole with twine.
Mr Parsons has also had to spend $239 for a wireless modem just to keep his business connected.
His 80-year-old neighbour Rita Sweeney, who is also blind in her right eye, has had to resort to using her mobile phone and wracking up a bill because she has also been left without landline and internet services.
The problem began shortly after midday on October 14, when the overhead fibre optic NBN cable between Brown and Mann Streets, in Markham Street, broke under light winds.
Mr Parsons, left without the internet and his landline, reported the fault to his internet service provider and then the NBN Co.
He then rolled up the broken cable lying in the gutter and attached it to the power pole, where it remains.
What followed was 10 days of phone calls between Mr Parsons and NBN representatives.
An NBN contractor arrived at the site on October 17, according to Mr Parsons, but left within 10 minutes, again because of strong winds.
Worse still, when Mr Parsons sought resolution from the telecommunications watchdog, he was told it could not investigate issues with NBN because it was the wholesaler of services, rather than the carrier.
Mrs Sweeney said when she complained to Telstra, she was told the problem rested with NBN Co and it would have to fix the cable.
“I wish I’d never heard of them,” Mrs Sweeney said. An NBN Co spokesman apologised for the inconvenience and said the company was working hard to re-instate the cable and restore services as soon as possible.
Editor's update: Mr Parsons tells us contractors restored the NBN cable optic fibre to households this morning.