CORANGAMITE Shire Council chief executive Andrew Mason says it is too soon to put a number on the financial cost of the Telstra exchange outage.
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Mr Mason said the blackout had certainly had a big impact on the council’s own operations and he was aware of the broader impact on businesses.
He said it was too early to say what the financial cost was but the council would do its own analysis.
“We have as a council certainly been impacted by the loss of telecommunications,” he said.
Mr Mason said he had spoken to Telstra Country Wide south-west area manager Bill Mundy and had been assured Telstra was working hard and focused on restoring services.
He said full services were expected to be back by the end of the week.
Mr Mason said the council would like to be included in any debrief to discuss how the outage came about and the likelihood of it happening again.
Mr Mason said Telstra would look at compensation packages for small businesses.
“It has certainly meant our office has had a difficult time responding to,” he said.
“As a client of Telstra we are happy with the way they have responded.”
South West ward councillor Neil Trotter said the Timboon Supermarket and other businesses in the town had been heavily impacted. “There has been a lot of frustration,” he said.
“There has been a great impact on the supermarket, they’ve probably missed a lot of trade.
“I would think Port Campbell has also been hit pretty hard.
“Visitors couldn’t access cash.”
