Tim Malone.id.au

Telstra introduced me to one of my neighbours today, in a strange way.

I woke up to find a little red light flashing on my business answering machine. It normally flashes either when I’ve missed a call, or when I’m on the phone. Knowing I wasn’t on the phone, I checked the screen to see if I’d missed a call – and I hadn’t. Curious, I picked up the phone – and heard voices!

For most of this week, it’s been raining here in Canberra. Last night was exceptionally heavy at one point, and somehow the rain managed to get into a telephone switch box near my house, and to fuse my phone line’s copper wires with that of a neighbour’s phone line. Thus we were now sharing a line.

I was quite intrigued by this when I found out, and I played around seeing what I could discover. Strangely (and luckily), my ADSL connection worked fine (on the same line), but my actual phone line was nowhere to be found – if I picked up my phone and called my mobile, my neighbour’s number popped up on the caller ID. And if I called my phone number, I was apparently on the phone, even if I wasn’t. My neighbour and I were sharing my neighbour’s line, and I could make any calls I wanted….

I rang TransACT to report the fault, and they logged it and passed it on to the line owners, Telstra, for their investigation. TransACT also diverted all my business calls to my mobile, so I wouldn’t miss any. Then something else happened. I started getting calls for my neighbour. Her mother in law called, and then her pediatrician, and then her grandmother. I had a missed call from one of them, so I called back thinking it was a client trying to get a hold of me – and was greeted with “Hi Melinda!”

I was advised by TransACT that the fault would be fixed by 7pm tomorrow. That’s 35 hours since I reported it. During that time, I haven’t got access to my line, I’m paying for all my calls to be diverted, and if I was a shifty character I could be eavesdropping on my neighbour’s calls and racking up charges on her bill. And what about the fault in the first place? Copper lines were fused together by rain? Strangely, I don’t buy that as an excuse. Shouldn’t copper wires be i-n-s-u-l-a-t-e-d? When I asked about this, I was told that the lines have been there for years, are old technology, and Telstra probably aren’t planning on replacing them. I would have expected better.

I spoke to my neighbour tonight. Because I had her phone number from my caller ID, I rang her once from my mobile, hung up, then picked up my phone to talk to her directly, once she answered the phone. I gave her messages from her calls that had been sent to me, and we agreed that she could use the line tonight, and I could have it tomorrow for my business. And, I told her to let me know what I owe her when her next bill comes.

I still need to accept the invitation to come around for coffee one day. After this successful trial, I wonder if Telstra has plans to expand their new neighbour-meeting scheme? Just remember, next time it rains near you, your neighbour could be using your line…..