The Australian | January 14, 2011 | Mitchell Bingemann
THE nation’s major telecommunications companies are facing a bill in excess of $50 million and three months of build time.
This, to repair communication systems damaged by the Queensland floods, reported The Australian.
Tens of thousands of people have been left without mobile, landline or internet access since the catastrophic floods struck Queensland, wreaking havoc on infrastructure, flooding facilities and causing power outages that have knocked out communications services.
John Parkin, Telstra’s director of service delivery, northern region, said communication services in Brisbane would be back on line within four days, but central and western Queensland were facing a wait of up to 18 days without services.
Many mobile base stations and telephony exchanges have been powered by battery backups and diesel generators since the floods struck, but restricted access to many sites has hampered much of the recovery effort.
“We have a disaster here that spreads across the equivalent size of France and Germany together and we also have an area with a large population,” Mr Parkin said.
“We are providing temporary power solutions to our sites, but when emergency services can’t get there, then neither can we, and that’s been the challenge for us.”
Telstra yesterday said 262 telephony exchanges used to provide essential communication services had been declared “red zones”, meaning the affected areas were currently a “no-go” for Telstra technicians tasked to repair the damage.
Yesterday, as the flood waters began their slow retreat, Telstra and Optus started their assessments of the damage and cranked up plans to restore communications to the disaster-struck region.
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