Tassie still tackling power/internet woes
The impact of Tasmania’s Basslink outage continues, as the government scrambles to patch up various services.
Tasmania's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has rushed to approve 24 diesel generators to be operated by Hydro Tasmania in the central highlands.
The authorities quickly determined that the generators will not put the public at risk, completing what is normally a six-month process in just four weeks.
“The matters we've been looking at fairly carefully is the air emissions, the nearest residence is 3.5 kilometres away and there are only three residents inside five kilometres,” said EPA director Wes Ford.
“We've been looking at air emissions at their location and we're satisfied those air emissions are well below the national environmental protection measure for air.”
Meanwhile, Tasmanian internet users have reported severe slow-downs and outages since repairs started on the crucial power and fibre-optic internet cable.
Providers have purchased additional capacity on Telstra's private fibre-optic cable.
Reports say TPG’s iiNet and Internode did not secure enough bandwidth for demand, despite servicing about 40 per cent of the state.
Basslink says Telstra offered a “completely uncommercial” deal to move all service providers to its private infrastructure, leaving individual companies to negotiate separate deals.
With the Basslink repairs expected to run until late May, ISPs have to use Telstra's fibre-optic cables in the meantime.
Tasmania’s IT Minister, Michael Ferguson, said TPG is reviewing the situation with a view to purchasing additional capacity from Telstra.