Lines Patched With Plastic
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday February 19, 2008
PLASTIC bags similar to those you shop with are being used by Telstra to waterproof live telephone wires in the Illawarra as technicians struggle to keep up with an increasing number of network faults.
And despite an estimated 1400 faults between Wollongong and Jervis Bay, Telstra technicians are being enticed to leave the region to attend similar problems in Sydney, where there is also a huge backlog.Figures obtained by the Mercury show there are about 620 faults in Telstra's Wollongong network and 500 in Shellharbour.Overloaded technicians are being forced to do hasty patch-up jobs with tape and plastic bags on wires, meaning the network becomes vulnerable to more faults when there is rain, the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union says.The Mercury has photographic evidence of black plastic bags being used at Figtree. At Unanderra, cables are exposed to the weather. Outside contractors are approached to finish the uncompleted work, but often don't get to it before a downpour, the union says.The Mercury revealed last month that 36 Telstra staff in the Illawarra, mainly technicians, had been retrenched in 18 months by a telco which posted a $3.275 billion profit last financial year. The Union said Telstra's cost cutting was to blame for the latest spike in faults."I don't know how you'd feel if you're in the Illawarra and have a problem, yet see all these Telstra technicians' vans heading off to Sydney," assistant secretary Steve Dodd said."That makes people from the Illawarra seem like second-class citizens."Mr Dodd said the plastic bag technique was so common that some suburbs are called "Baghdad" by those in the industry."It means the network, for things like phones and internet, is no longer waterproof," Mr Dodd said. "With the modern technology that is inexcusable."Telstra Country Wide regional manager Pat Nolan in early January said a "one-in-25-year storm" in December had been the reason why the number of faults in the Illawarra had risen from 400-500 to 620.Mr Nolan yesterday said Victorian technicians were being used to clear the backlog which was evident because of unprecedented rainfall levels in February.Only a "handful" of workers had gone to Sydney, he said.Mr Nolan advised that technicians only used plastic bags in extenuating circumstances when a permanent fix was not possible."That's not a practice supported by Telstra, it's not an accepted practice," he said.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury
