Telstra's exchange on wheels proves its worth

Stuart Corner
Monday, 01 February 2010 18:36

Your IT - Home IT

Telstra has put to good use its Mobile Exchange on Wheels, developed after last year's Black Saturday bushfires to enable Telstra to quickly restore fixed line services in an area where an exchange has been destroyed by fire.

The Mobile Exchange on Wheels (MEOW) was introduced last July. It has just been used to replace a small Telstra exchange at Gogeldrie in the Riverina (between Leeton and Griffith) that was destroyed by fire at around 2am last Sunday, 31 January.

According to Telstra, "Upon being alerted to the fire, Telstra transported the MEOW from Melbourne to Gogeldrie (around a six hour drive)...Fibre and cable tails had already been prepared in the MEOW unit, so when the trailer arrived on site at approximately 7pm Sunday evening the team was ready to commence jointing cables and fibre. The jointing went smoothly and once the fibre was connected to the Whitton exchange fibre at around 10.30pm, customers received dial tone."

The MEOW weighs three tonnes, light-enough to be towed behind a 4WD or light truck, and support 450 telephone services and over 300 ADSL2+ services at speeds of up to 20Mbps.