The mother in law vs Telstra and NBN

In October 2018 my mother in law moved into an aged care facility. Her husband and eldest son (who lived with them) had just died. She had recently been diagnosed with dementia and her eyesight was deteriorating rapidly.

Himself arranged for a phone to be connected to her room so she could stay in contact with the Polish community, family and friends. She just needed a landline but we were told she had to have NBN connected as that was the way of the future. So after a couple of weeks the NBN tech connected her and she got her phone.

Together we went through her address book and she told me who she was still in contact with and I wrote a letter telling people her new address and contact details. I even used google translate for the Polish friends! At this stage her eyesight was such that if we wrote names and numbers in big black letters she could read the and dial the large numbered phone. So for a while things were hunky dory.

Over the past 3 years she has gone downhill. She is now almost totally blind and her dementia has progressed which, combined with recurring UTIs, means her memory is unreliable and she has difficulty remembering things that happened recently like who has called her. Her phone is her only way to deal with her anxiety over things (like where is her husband and can we tell her mother she will be late home from work) and we had Himself's number programmed as the only one she could call regardless of which button she pressed. Initially we had other numbers on speed dial but after getting random calls from her in the middle of the night we figured it was kinder to her other contacts to allow them to call her! I know her other son calls her even though she doesn't remember and we can only assume her Polish friends also call her.

Until now.

Mid August we tried to ring her. We got "the number you have called is not connected. Please check the number and try again". After a couple of days Himself reported the issue to Telstra and was told the number had been disconnected by NBN. But no one could say why or by whom it was authorised. Since then he has made numerous calls to Telstra, NBN and the telecommunications ombudsman. We have been told it was a Telstra issue. An NBN issue. NBN disconnected it because they didn't recognise the number. The address was wrong. Optus pinched the connection. It was an automatic cancellation because it was a landline and she needed NBN connectivity. We were told they needed access to the facility to reinstall a modem. Provide a modem. Check the modem. They disconnected her remotely - surely she could be reconnected remotely. No. They need access. Which part of lockdown and restricted access to aged care facilities don't you get? WE aren't allowed in.

Himself has dealt with so many people ranging from knowledgeable and helpful (rare) to extremely rude and unhelpful (very common). He has shown great restraint but has raised his voice in frustration. Especially when the person at the other end (in another country say no more) won't listen and keeps talking over him. Everyone is very sorry but no one wants to fix it. I guess it's hard to fix if no one knows what the problem is. Correction - everyone knows what the problem is, it just differs depending on who you talk to. But they still can't fix it.

He is currently on the phone for the umpteenth time. I have no idea where this will end. In the meantime my poor mother in law has no contact with the outside world. I cannot begin to imagine what this is doing to her already fragile mental state. I fear when we are finally allowed to see her she will not know us.

And yes, we can ring the facility and she can speak with us but this seems to add to her confusion. The staff there are great and I know if there is an issue they will ring us but we just want things back to normal.