Telstra assistance package for Queensland customers affected by floodwaters and storms

Telstra today announced an assistance package for its residential and small business customers across Wide Bay, Central and Southern Queensland * who have been evacuated from their homes or whose phone services have been affected by the recent storms and flooding.

Under Telstra’s assistance package, Telstra offers customers who report a temporary loss of their Telstra service due to natural disaster:

* Free call diversion from their fixed service to a fixed or mobile service of their choice;
* For Telstra customers who have diverted their fixed line phone to their Telstra mobile, mobile calls charged at home line rates as per their selected HomeLine plan for local and STD calls (limited to one designated Telstra mobile per affected household or business);

These offers will continue until the network damage in the area has been repaired. To report a fault and access these offers, customers should contact 13 22 03.

Telstra Corporate Affairs Manager for Queensland, Ms Jane de Gault said Telstra technicians continue to work to fully recover all communications services impacted by the flooding in Queensland.

“We are working hard to restore services to flood affected areas of the state and have over 100 technicians mobilised from across Australia to assist. Some areas are still unsafe to access but we are monitoring and will restore them as soon as possible.

“Telstra’s core network has held up well. The largest impact to Telstra’s network has been caused by a loss of power. Where possible, alternative power sources have already been activated for Telstra sites without mains power.

“One of the biggest issues we’re facing is the damage caused by flood water. In some cases we simply cannot gain access to sites to repair damage and will have to wait for flood waters to recede so we can safely access some parts of the network

“We will be using helicopters to fly over the affected areas to assess when we will be able to mobilise the workforce to those areas. As soon as it’s safe to do so our people will move in and work to connect all of our customers again,” she said.

While flood waters are receding in some areas, support is still available for Telstra customers whose phone services have been affected by the floods and storms.

Ms de Gault encouraged customers to call Telstra on 13 22 03 to report a fault and register for the assistance package if their phone service had been affected by the floods and the storms.

“We are experiencing an increase in the number of customers who have problems with their fixed phone line because of the flooding and while we are maximising the use of people in our call centres, there may be some delays when calling to report a fault,” she said.

“With similar weather conditions and widespread flooding expected throughout New Year we are unable to provide definitive timings around restoration of services. We ask our customers to be patient during this time, and assure them we are doing everything we can to get them back online as quickly as possible.”

* Wide Bay: Bundaberg and Munduberra.
Central Queensland: Biloela, Cracow, Emerald, Moura, Rockhampton, Theodore and Wowan.
Southern Queensland: Allora, Alpha, Boonah, Chinchilla, Dalby, Jericho, Killarney, Warra and Warwick.