Cut cable silences Remuera phones

Around 750 homes in Remuera were left without landline phones when the area's main copper cable was damaged on Monday.

A spokesman said Telecom did not know what caused the damage, but it was investigating. "It's not nice when one of these happens."

The cable is a bundle of 750 copper wires and when they are severed each must be matched up one by one.

The spokesman said Telecom's first concern was getting the fault fixed. It would then look at possible causes. This type of damage was usually caused by contractors digging through cables and was not uncommon in rural areas.

If Telecom found the break was the result of negligence it might try to recover the cost of repairs.

By yesterday morning, 250 customers had been reconnected and a further 250 connections were to be repaired by the afternoon.

The Telecom spokesman said all the phones should be repaired by this morning.

Broadband and cellphone services were not affected and customers could have their incoming calls diverted to their mobiles at no cost.

They would still have to pay to make calls from their mobiles.

Any Telecom customers who is left without a landline for more than 24 hours can claim one month's free line rental.