Telstra has blamed floods for widespread service outages that have left hundreds of customers without any mobile phone reception.
About 500 clients of the national telco reported losing mobile coverage in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Taking to Twitter to air their grievances, Telstra users near the border of NSW and Victoria said they had been without mobile service since 3am.
Residents in the border towns of Wagga Wagga and Albury-Wodonga said there was still no coverage in the areas at 7am.
There are more than 100,000 people living in the border towns and surrounding areas.
As one Victorian resident pointed out, the timing couldn’t be worse as the state gears up for a public holiday on Melbourne Cup day.
A Telstra customer service representative reassured customers that the company is aware of the “widespread outage” and is striving to rectify it quickly.
“A power outage in Boorowa and a cable cut near Adelong are disrupting Telstra services across southern New South Wales and northern Victoria,” a spokesperson said.
“Both are believed to be flood related.”
A backup battery at Boorowa in southern NSW kept services active throughout the night, but the Telstra spokesperson said it unfortunately ran out around 3am.
“We’re working with the power company to get services back online and we have technicians urgently trying to find a way into the area, but a number of roads are flooded,” they said in a statement to NCA NewsWire.
“We know how important being able to stay in touch is during this time and we are working to get everything back online as quickly as possible.”
In the meantime, Telstra recommends using Wi-Fi to register an outage.
The outage comes as Victorian residents are battling ongoing flood emergencies and most residents are monitoring for constant SES updates.
Telstra has been contacted for comment.
More to come.
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