After recent troubles with the Telecom XT network, it was landline problems which caused frustrating disruptions for several Dunedin businesses and their customers yesterday.
It is understood that two accounting firms, a building supplies outlet, a carpet sales retailer and a photocopier firm were among at least eight sites disrupted.
A private medical establishment and Logan Park High School were also affected.
Incoming phone calls via Telecom could not be received by the businesses for much of the morning.
The disruption extended into the afternoon for at least one business and the medical facility.
Robin Kelly, a spokesman for Chorus, Telecom's network management business, said several customers were affected by a series of faults involving a switching device at a Dunedin telephone exchange yesterday Services were restored by about mid-afternoon.
Any disruption to customers was "not acceptable" and Chorus apologised for the problems.
There would be further communication with affected customers next week, Mr Kelly said. PlaceMakers Dunedin owner-operator Justin Macready had to have all incoming calls diverted to his XT network cellphone throughout the morning.
He spent two and a-half hours attempting to answer all queries for the facility during one of its busiest times, the last main working day of the month.
"It was very, very frustrating for us," he said.
In some cases, because calls could not be transferred to individual staff phone extensions, he walked to specific staff members and handed the phone to them so they could deal directly with customers.
When the phone service was restored, he spent a further 90 minutes calling back 24 people who had left messages on his phone.
Full telephone service was restored about noon, but Mr Macready was concerned about potentially adverse experiences for customers in the third disruption to parts of the landline system experienced by the branch since last year.
There were also frustrations at chartered accounting firm WHK, which employs about 70 people in its Dunedin office.
Throughout the morning, phone calls for the Dunedin office had to be diverted to the firm's Milton office, with messages passed on to the city office via email.
WHK Dunedin information technology manager Lloyd Jolly said the outage had proved "stressful" and disruptive, and he was concerned some clients may not have realised it was a network fault beyond WHK's control.
The two men said communication from Telecom about the faults could have been better and they regretted any disruption to customers.
Logan Park High School principal Jane Johnson said there had been some limited disruption to incoming calls yesterday morning but the problems had been quickly detected and rectified.
