No internet for two weeks after storm

Frustrated residents in a remote Pilbara town have been left without NBN for two weeks after a recent thunder storm wiped out part of their service.

The storm hit Tom Price on January 19, leaving hundreds in the town without internet access, despite having different service providers.

Head of NBN local WA Jane McNamara said the complexity of the works caused a delay to the restoration of services.

“A team of NBN technicians have been in Tom Price assessing the issue and have been working hard to restore services as quickly as possible,” she said.

“Services are now restored and we would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.”

But Tom Price resident Nick Burgers, whose provider is Telstra, said he was still experiencing issues and had a technician cancel on him multiple times.

“It’s not good enough. We run a business from home too and it is affecting our business,” he said.

“Nearly everybody I’ve spoken to is affected by this problem.”

Resident Angela Davidson, whose provider is iiNet, said the remote town relied on internet access to stay in touch with the outside world, keep up on news, study and check road conditions.