With water levels now receding in the flood affected areas of Queensland and the Optus network largely operational, Optus has turned its focus to helping restore services to customers whose property or business was impacted by the floods.

Optus has deployed an additional 250 employees in its call centres to help customers with queries relating to the restoration of services and general enquiries. In addition, Optus has brought in field technicians from interstate to help restore services on the ground in Queensland.

For customers who have lost or damaged their mobile handset as a result of the floods, Optus has increased stock levels of loan phones which will be available from Optus Yes Shops in flood affected areas from later this week.

This is in addition to the 1,500 pre-paid Optus mobile handsets loaded with $1,000 of credit which are being distributed in Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Brisbane and Toowoomba at various locations to assist people who have lost access to telecommunications services, with support from Red Cross.

Optus’ customer assistance package also includes extended timeframes for bill payment; bill waiver in instances of extreme financial hardship on a case by case basis; free call diversion from an Optus fixed home phone to any mobile or fixed number; and no service reconnection fees within the next 12 months.

Clare Gill, General Manager, Optus Government and Corporate Affairs said, “With our network now almost fully operational, we’ve turned our attention to helping customers during this difficult time of rebuilding their lives. For those customers who have lost services due to the floods, we will endeavour to provide them with a temporary alternative solution such as a loan phone or prepaid mobile broadband service while we repair their handset or restore their home service.

"We understand this is a difficult time for many of our customers in Queensland and urge affected customers to contact us if they have any concerns relating to their Optus service."

Optus network largely operational; Sydney to Brisbane inland link restored on Weekend

As of 5pm on Monday 17 January, the Optus fixed and mobile network is largely back to normal service levels in flood affected areas, with impact localised to parts of Brisbane and Ipswich.

In Brisbane, Ipswich and regional Queensland mobile coverage has been restored to normal in most areas as coverage overlap has mitigated the loss of individual base stations. Some business services in the Brisbane CBD will remain disrupted while we assess the extent of the damage to our fixed infrastructure.

In parts of Ipswich (including Bundamba, Dinmore and Booval), Brisbane South (including Annerley, Fairfield, Moorooka and Salisbury) and Brisbane Inner West (Paddington, Auchenflower, and St Lucia), our HFC network remains partially disrupted with some nodes still impacted by the power outage and water damage.

This is affecting fixed home phone and internet services to some customers in those areas. We expect services to return to normal as soon as mains power is restored and any water damaged equipment replaced.

“Optus’ priority is to return to normal service levels as quickly as possible in affected areas as power availability improves and access to buildings granted so our engineers can inspect any damaged equipment.

“We continue to deploy additional resources to Queensland from Melbourne and Sydney to ensure the needs of the recovery can be supported, and already have field technicians on the ground working to replace equipment damaged by water. While we hope to restore most fixed and mobile services within the next week, until we are able to gain access to all our affected sites, the full extent of the damage to our infrastructure will not be known and some sites will take longer to restore.

“As we enter the rebuild phase and start planning for reconnecting customers, we encourage anyone doing below the ground work to follow the ‘dial before you dig’ procedures by dialling 1100 to ensure that critical infrastructure remains protected,” Clare Gill said.

Media contact:
Kasia Ciszak/Liz Greene
Optus Corporate Affairs
Tel: (02) 8082 7850

* Extended opening hours of Optus customer care centres for customers impacted by Queensland floods

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