Fibre repair crews have set up along Maitland Road at Hexham, near Sparke Street, working to fix major mobile and internet disruptions affecting the Hunter and regional NSW. The repairs have temporarily closed one westbound lane.
Customers across the Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, and Kogan networks are experiencing significant drops in mobile reception, data, and NBN connectivity.
Outages have been reported across Maitland and Lake Macquarie, with disruptions stretching as far west as Dubbo. Vodafone mobile users are losing reception heading west from Hexham, though inner city Newcastle remains unaffected.
Providers are blaming the widespread disruptions on the vandalism of third party infrastructure (pictured below). TPG estimates that services in Maitland and nearby areas will progressively return to normal by 3am on Saturday.
The timing of the outage is particularly frustrating for locals. Maitland Councillor Councillor Mitchell Griffin called the ongoing disruptions “very concerning,” pointing out that thousands of regional NSW students are currently locked out of the internet right as they prepare for next week’s HSC exams.
This latest incident is part of a broader trend. According to local MP Dan Repacholi, vandals regularly target infrastructure affecting telecommunications services in the Cessnock area.
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