COOMA households and businesses were thrown into chaos last Wednesday when the main fibre optic cable to the town was cut.
About 6000 homes and businesses were without landline phones and EFTPOS services for about 16 hours while the cable was repaired.
Shoppers were dismayed and severely inconvenienced when they found they were unable to pay for goods or petrol in the area.
Businesses likewise were largely unable to operate, except for cash purchases.
A Telstra spokesperson said damage to the fibre optic cable was due to excavation work in the Cobargo area.
"All services carried over this fibreoptic cable would have been impacted including EFTPOS," the Telstra spokesperson said.
"Fibre optic cable is the main transmission cable back to the core network.
"The cable was cut at 1.30pm [on Wednesday] and repaired at about 5pm on Thursday morning.
"If any business feels that they have a claim due to not being able to operate for the period of time that the lines were down to contact Telstra. We assess these situations on a case by case basis," she said.
"As soon as we become aware that a line is down we deploy our rapid response teams to the area - they work through the night, rain, hail to get the lines up and running, and stay on site for as long as that takes."
"We would encourage anyone planning excavation work or needing to dig to call the free Dial before you Dig service on 1100 or to visit 1100.com.au for information about cables (including Telstra cables)."