Telstra network ‘stood up well’, bushfire commission hears
Telstra network ‘stood up well’, bushfire commission hears
22 June 2009
published by www.abc.net.au
Australia —
The Bushfires Royal Commission has heard more than 6,000 Telstra landlines stopped working on Black Saturday, or the day after, but that the network generally coped well.
Telstra’s Robert Beresford has told the commission almost 900 Telstra landlines across the state stopped working on Black Saturday and more than 5,000 more failed the next day.
But Mr Beresford said for those landlines that kept working, network congestion was not a problem – even in Kilmore.
Mr Beresford said all calls made from landlines in Kinglake, for instance, were successfully processed on Black Saturday.
The commission heard Telstra’s network “stood up well” to the fires and in most cases there was a delay between fire hitting an area and the heat finally melting the cables, almost all of which were underground.
Mr Beresford said some equipment, like a tower at Mount Gordon near Marsyville, was burnt, but for those landlines that kept working, congestion did not interfere with connections.
