Providers have had to purchase capacity on Telstra’s private fibre-optic cable, after the Basslink undersea cable was cut on Friday for repair work.
The undersea link is used to import and export some power as well as fibre-optic internet between Tasmania and Victoria, and has been out of action since December
iiNet and Internode, both owned by TPG, service about 40 per cent of the state’s market but did not secure enough bandwidth for demand.
Basslink said Telstra offered them a “completely uncommercial” deal to move all their service providers, so individual companies were left to negotiate their own deals.
It is expected that Basslink will not be fixed until late May, and in the meantime ISPs have to use Telstra’s fibre-optic cables.
The state’s IT Minister, Michael Ferguson, said TPG has promised an improved service.
“They will be reviewing the situation with a view to purchasing additional capacity from Telstra,” he said.
Internet users urged to seek compensation
Consumer group Choice has encouraged Tasmanian customers experiencing poor internet to seek compensation.
Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said there was no excuse for the poor service.
“Although we can understand that it is out of their control, they are selling internet services and internet access,” he said.
“It’s a pretty simple thing, and they have to make sure you’re able to access the internet and under Australian consumer law, if you’re selling that service and you can’t deliver it, then the consumer has a right to a remedy.”
Webpage designer Nathaniel Jeaneret is one of many whose businesses have been affected by the degraded internet service.
“I was working with a client and all of a sudden everything just sort of stopped,” he said.
“I thought that something had gone wrong at my end and then it just got worse and worse and worse.
“It basically just kept getting slower and more patchy, and then by the end of the day it was basically unusable.”
[“Source-net”]
