‘Not sure if it's sabotage’: Second Telstra outage in Adelaide Hills could be deliberate after vandals cut it last week

A fibre-optic cable connecting Adelaide the Hills city has been cut again, with a local MP saying there were now concerns it was deliberate.

Thousands of Telstra customers in the Mount Barker area had no phone service for most of Tuesday, with fears a fibre optic cable was deliberately cut by vandals for a second time since last week.

Technicians spent most of the day working to restore coverage, which came back online around 6:30pm.

It comes after the same fibre optic cable was deliberately sabotaged by vandals early last week, with Telstra referring the initial incident to South Australia Police.

On Tuesday, Telstra customers in the Adelaide Hills city awoke to no service on their phones, with four service towers offline due to the cable being cut again.

The Advertiser understands the last outage was caused by copper theft. Telstra is still exploring the cause of this new outage.

Telstra said they were yet to refer Tuesday’s matter to SA Police, and could not confirm that the second incident was deliberate, as they worked to restore coverage first.

Telstra Regional General Manager, Michael Patterson confirmed that there was a “cut” in the cable on Tuesday.

“We urgently deployed technicians to investigate and unfortunately found a fibre optic cable was cut,” he told The Advertiser.

“A damaged fibre optic cable is affecting mobile services in the Mount Barker region.

“Our technicians worked as quickly as possible to restore services and we thank everyone for their patience.

“Now services are back online, we’ll investigate how the damage occurred.

“Calls to triple zero will be automatically diverted to any working mobile network for connection to emergency services.”

Independent federal MP, for the Adelaide Hills, Rebekha Sharkie made The Advertiser aware of the issue on Tuesday, questioning whether the second cable being cut was deliberate, and an act of “sabotage”.

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie in Parliament House, Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

She said the service outages came “on days of extreme fire risk”, putting people’s lives in danger.

“This is the second time in a week that the towers are down in an unplanned outage. It beggars belief that this has happened twice in a week, both on days of extreme fire risk,” she said.

“This morning four Telstra mobile phone towers went down in the Mount Barker area. Last week we were advised the cables were cut (and) it would appear that this might be the same issue, although I have not had this confirmed.

“I am not sure if it is sabotage or technical faults, but this cannot happen. Reliable telecommunications are an essential service.”

Local MP Dan Cregan expressed concern over the matter.

“We are extremely concerned. This is a critical service for us during hot weather events,” Mr Cregan said.

“We have been in frequent contact with Telstra’s State Manager in the course of the day and are receiving regular updates.”

Ms Sharkie said people could still contact triple-0 in the event of an emergency, due to Telstra diverting all calls to other service providers, but said she has raised community concerns with the service provider as it was affecting people’s businesses and daily lives. “What I can confirm is that Telstra has diverted all tech teams to this fault, and that emergency calls to triple-0 are operational as customers will be jumped to Optus or Vodafone,” she said.

“I can also confirm I have conveyed to Telstra management in the strongest possible way, that the faults are frustrating for residents and businesses and there is an enormous sense of fear and concern in our community, particularly in these extreme weather and being in a high bushfire risk area.

“My office and I are in constant contact with the local regional Telstra management team, and updating my community as soon as information is at hand.”

SA Police has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as ‘Not sure if it's sabotage’: Second Telstra outage in Adelaide Hills could be deliberate after vandals cut it last week