TOP STORY: Blacked out by Telecom

LUCY CRAYMER
An overloaded Telecom phone cable means one Hawke's Bay couple have little hope of getting their phone connected.
Jacqui and Bruce Cairns moved into their newly built home on Middle Road, 20km out of Havelock North, near Camp David, at the beginning of August to discover the only way they could have a phone line connected was if someone else disconnected theirs.
They are just one of 112 households around New Zealand that can't be connected to their local service because of overloading.
The nearest line, which runs along Middle Road, can service just 15 phone lines.
Mrs Cairns said they called Telecom in September 2005 when they asked to have an unused phone cable that ran across their section moved to connect to their proposed construction site.
In August this year the Cairnses were allocated a phone number and were told a technician was on the way. Later, however, they were called by Telecom and told they could not be connected.
"I was just gobsmacked," Mrs Cairns said.
Mrs Cairns said she understood why Telecom could not put in a new line but did not understand why the company had not let them know sooner.
Telecom spokesman Sean Martin said only when a service was requested were checks made to see whether it was possible.
"We advise anyone building a new home to contact Telecom to request the service at the earliest opportunity," he said.
"The Cairnses cannot connect to the network at this stage because there is no spare capacity in the phone cable," he said.
To allow the family to connect to the cable would require removing another customer from it. The nearest customer that could be removed was 2.8km from another cable running from the Havelock North exchange.
Running a cable that far would cost more than $30,000, Mr Martin said.
In the other direction the Cairnses are just 1km from the most northern point of the Otane exchange.
Telecom will not connect them to the Otane cable, however, "because the distance from the exchange means the level of service would not meet the minimum standards as required under the Telecommunications Service Obligation deed (Kiwi Share)."
"This financial year Telecom has allocated $495million in capital expenditure for the NZ fixed line network, which includes provision for growth, upgrades and replacements and new investments," Mr Martin said.
The family's only form of phone communication is through a Telecom cellphone (they are outside Vodafone coverage).
But even with little chance of receiving a phone connection the Cairnses won't be receiving cheaper cellphone calls.
Mr Martin said Telecom credited some cellphone accounts up to $100 if a solution was found.
"This credit does not apply to a new connection customer who does not have current service with Telecom before the new connection was ordered, nor does it apply for connection requests where a solution has not yet been investigated," Mr Martin said.
National MP Craig Foss, whom the family had asked for help, said said Telecom should have informed the family the first time they called there was a problem with the line.