Isolated home can't have landline

Cut off: Christel Korn has no way of phoning for help if alone in an emergency.

Supplied

SAPPHIRE: Christel Korn was looking forward to retiring to her property at Sapphire – that was until problems getting her landline connected made her question which century she was living in.

In such an isolated area, she was concerned for her safety.

“If I would be sick and alone, what would happen?”

Ms Korn has owned her property for about 25 years and has not had a landline connected since shortly after she purchased it.

Now retired, Ms Korn decided to have the phone re-connected as she planned to live there on a more regular basis.

“I wanted to put the telephone back on and was told that I needed not only a street name, but a rural numbering too.”

After several visits to the Central Highlands Regional Council, Ms Korn was issued a street name and number and the street received a sign.

Ms Korn took these new details into the Telstra store at Emerald, but with her details still not appearing in its computer system it was unable to help.

A Telstra spokeswoman yesterday said the problem may be with the isolation of the property.

She said with the address not appearing on any Telstra maps, it was unlikely that existing infrastructure in Ms Korn’s home could provide a phone service.

“This means new cable will have to be provided ... There is no existing infrastructure which means a connection cannot be made quickly.”

The spokeswoman said Telstra would try to assist Ms Korn but have had trouble getting in contact with her.