Chorus faulted over days of broadband woes

A Waipukurau computer technician is saying Chorus "let the town down" after a broadband outage that left parts of the central business district floundering for four days this week.

"I had a call from a client on Monday, complaining about slow broadband," the technician said.

"The client's internet provider had tested the line, found no deficiency in speed and said it must be the client's router.

"I tested the router and there was nothing wrong with it. I then contacted Chorus."

The technician said the problem had escalated.

"On Tuesday, I had five more clients with the same problem, it continued on Wednesday."

No official outage report was posted until 10.30am yesterday, the technician said.

"By then it was too late. People were pulling cables out, customers were bringing their computers in, it was a complete waste of four days. There was nothing wrong with the computers - I can't bill those clients, but who is going to pay me for the wasted time?

"Nor were the providers at fault - due to the nature of the fault, their line tests were showing no problem."

A Chorus spokesperson said Chorus responded to a complaint of degraded service that was lodged on Monday and technicians located faulty equipment in a cabinet at the Waipukurau exchange at 9am yesterday. The equipment had been replaced by 1.03pm and subsequent tests showed the service was back to normal.

The spokesperson said the delay was a result of health and safety conditions preventing technicians from accessing the site of the fault.

The technician was angry the CHB town was forced to put up with four days of inadequate broadband.

"It should have been fixed by Tuesday. Theoretically, everyone has had four days of slow broadband. Records were lost, eftpos transactions were lost, time and money was lost. How do we get refunded?

"Chorus should be paying. It was their faulty equipment. Chorus should be making a big donation to a local charity in recompense."