Telstra blames thieves for outage
TELSTRA blamed thieves for causing widespread outages to its mobile phone, fixed phone and broadband network on Wednesday.
Thousands of Springfield and Camira customers were affected after cables were deliberately cut in a pit near a service station that was the target of a burglary.
Police said two men used an axe to smash a glass door at the Caltex service station on Old Logan Rd, Camira, about 2.50am.
They damaged the front counter console and removed an undisclosed sum of cash, also attempting to get into an ATM before fleeing.
Telstra southern Queensland region general manager Nigel Beaman said it appeared that the thieves cut the cables in a bid to disable the service station's alarms.
"They cut a whole bunch of cables, taking out at least one base station in the area," Mr Beaman said.
Telstra had a repair crew on site from early morning and services were progressively restored from about midday.
Despite the attempt at disabling the alarms, police confirmed that multiple alerts were detected from the service station.
The first offender was described as Caucasian with a medium build, wearing a dark blue balaclava.
The second man was described as having a tanned complexion with a medium build, wearing a light blue balaclava. Both men were wearing dark track suits.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
