TELSTRA says 93 per cent of landlines affected by the Warrnambool exchange fire have now been repaired.
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Yesterday technicians continued to individually recable remaining landline services through the exchange.
Work to restore internet services is ongoing, with about 50 per cent back online across the district.
A Telstra spokesman said more than 50 technicians were on site carrying out repairs as quickly as possible.
On Saturday, additional scaffolding was set up to expedite the repair of some remaining damaged cables and technicians worked to individually recable remaining landline services through the Warrnambool exchange.
On Friday night significant gains were made in repairing services to Bushfield and Warrnambool. Warrnambool mayor Michael Neoh said he received a call from Telstra chief executive officer David Thodey late Friday afternoon.
He said it was agreed that he would continue to consult with Telstra regional manager Bill Mundy and chief operations officer Brendon Riley.
“If we have 100 per cent recovery by Friday but there are still businesses saying they haven’t got EFTPOS or landlines at least we have a concrete timeline and we can go from there,” he said.
Cr Neoh said now that Telstra had committed to supporting a national tourism campaign to advertise that the region was open for business, the campaign needed to happen sooner rather than later.
“The lead-up to Christmas and then New Year’s through to the end of the school holidays are the two most important phases,” he said. “We need to let people know that we are open and get people back here.”
cquirk@fairfaxmedia.com.au