Tasmania has been plunged back into the early 1990s, as internet services were down this afternoon, with no word on when the state will be back online.
Two of three subsea cables connecting the island to the mainland were damaged, with at least one cut during civil works. The cables are operated by Telstra, who explains “techs have just arrived on site to assess the impact,” a spokesman said.
The third cable is owned and operated by BassLink, and has allowed emergency calls to get through.
“We are working urgently to resolve the issue … we’ll provide further updates as soon as we can,” Telstra said in an update at 3pm.
The issue is impacting Telstra, Optus and Aussie Broadband services, among others, and means mobile phone calls, internet browser and Eftpos payments are all unavailable.