An unknown number of Dunedin businesses and residents lost their telephone and internet connection for more than three hours yesterday when a contractor accidently cut a cable in the central city.
Telecom technical support spokeswoman Janelle Tulay said the outage occurred when a 15-tier cable in Bishops Rd was damaged. The fault was reported at 10.42am and fixed at 2.16pm, she said. The number of people who lost their connection was unknown.
The Brothers Hotel host Rod McMeeken said the Rattray St hotel lost its phone and internet connection at 9.24am. The contractors were digging to lay fibreoptic cables, he said. It was ''frustrating'' it had taken Telecom so long to inform Chorus, he said.
''They were notified by a contractor at 9.24am but it wasn't logged until 10.45am, so there was an internal communication issue, which didn't help.''
