Lightning strike and fire damage blamed for mass Telstra outage

PEOPLE were unable to call triple-zero and traffic was brought to a standstill this morning thanks to a mass Telstra outage.

TELSTRA is blaming this morning's national outage, that stopped people from calling triple-zero and brought Victorian traffic to a standstill, on a freak lightning strike.

The network posted a photo earlier today of a cable pit in regional NSW surrounded by blackened earth.

Update: @Telstra fibre repair crew on site at cable pit east of Orange. Significant fire damage consistent with lightning strike. We're working to restore services ASAP and are sorry for service interruptions. Current impact mostly in NSW & some interruptions in VIC, SA & WA. pic.twitter.com/alyCfNIKpZ

— Telstra News (@Telstra_news) May 3, 2018

Just before 6am today, the national network said the outage was because a cable had been cut by “an unknown party” between Orange and Bowral in NSW at 2.05am.

The technical problems stopped people from calling the emergency number 000 across Australia’s major cities.

The issue with Telstra’s network was affecting calls to police, fire and medical emergency services.

The company says the problem was their Nationwide service and it was hitting some callers in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Routers impacted by the cable cut were restored just before 5am but it takes time for the service to return to normal.

The outage also affected Victoria’s traffic light sequences.

Vic Roads confirmed this morning around 700 traffic lights had been impacted with less than 100 still experiencing problems.

NSW police advised people to try calling triple-0 first, then to call the NSW Police Assistance Line, 131 444.

“NSW Police have been made aware of an intermittent Telstra Network issue affecting the receipt of triple-0 phone calls,” NSW police said.

There have been intermittent problems with Triple Zero (000) this morning - if you require emergency assistance call Triple Zero FIRST, if this doesn't get thru, try the Police Assistance Line on 131 444, and calls will be diverted.

— NSW Police (@nswpolice) May 3, 2018

In Queensland, police assured customers that there appeared to be no issue from their end, despite the issues in southern states.

Originally published as Lightning strike and fire damage blamed for mass Telstra outage