The problem is bigger than we first enountered. When the truck hit the overhead fibre cable it didn't just pull it down and break it at the impact point, it stretched it resulting in numerous breaks 150 metres either side of the impact point.
Our guys have been on the scene since it happened yesterday afternoon and got cable TV back on for a number of customers this morning.
They are working to get a key node back on line by 5pm, which should mean we get the remaining 2-300 phone lines back on.
We will, however, need to do a fibre overlay over several hundred metres and this can't be done with services live. This means we'll need to wait until early in the morning and transfer services to a new cable. We are aiming to get cable modem customers back by about 5am tomorrow.
We'll be providing an update to Radio
NZ for their 5pm bulletin.
Apoliogies to those impacted - the truck was over height and once we get this sorted we'll be having some pretty terse discussions.
regards
Mat Bolland
Head of Communications
TelstraClear