Dial before you dig ahead of earthworks, says telco

The telecommunications company was asked about where the cable was cut on the Tasmanian side of Bass Strait and the third parties that caused the damage but a Telstra spokesperson declined to provide detail in response to either question.

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"Telstra doesn't disclose the specific locations of cable cuts or the third parties involved," the spokesperson said.

The company was also asked whether the Tasmanian cable was broken before the outage and what could be done to stop such a severe outage in the future.

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"The cable was not previously damaged beforehand," the spokesperson said.

"In relation to preventing incidents like this happening again, Telstra encourages anyone doing earthworks or excavations to use the Dial before you Dig service before commencing work."

The outage, which lasted about six hours, was caused by cuts to two of the three cables that run between Tasmania and the mainland.

According to Telstra, the first cable was severely damaged by third party civil works in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, while the second cable was damaged in an unrelated incident on the Coast, which is understood to have been caused by roadworks near Boat Harbour.

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