Road contractor's slip cuts Telecoms to 50,000

A roading contractor who sliced through a Telecom fibre optic cable on a quiet cattle road north of Dunedin today cut telecommunications to about 50,000 people.

The contractor made the cut about 11.45am and several exchange services to south Dunedin, Oamaru, Queenstown, Invercargill and possibly other areas of the lower South Island were affected, Telecom told NZPA.

Telephone landlines, mobile phones, internet, pagers, Eftpos and email were disabled.

About a third of the services had been restored by mid-afternoon, but the rest of the repairs could take until later tonight, a spokeswoman said.

Emergency 111 calls had been diverted to other exchanges "within a matter of minutes", she said.

- NZPA