A nationwide Telstra outage left some Newcastle businesses unable to process card payments, prompting renewed calls for customers to keep cash on hand.

The disruption affected mobile services, EFTPOS transactions and public transport across Australia on Wednesday 8 July, with people reporting issues making calls and accessing data.

In the Hunter, train services between Newcastle and Maitland on the Hunter Line were suspended due to an external telecommunications problem.

Telstra said it was working to restore services, with about 90% of calls and data connections returning as the day progressed.

At the Civic Theatre café, barista Aubrey Carbone said the outage created challenges for staff and customers trying to make purchases.

“It’s just a little bit inconvenient because we’ve had to turn a lot of people away,” she explained.

“Or we’ve been asking if they can go get cash out at ATMs, but a lot of them don’t carry physical cards to do that.”

Ms Carbone said regular customers were more understanding, with staff able to hold some coffee orders until payments could be completed.

“But, we can’t let everyone pay for it later, so it kind of upsets regulars,” she explained.

The outage also affected the café’s ordering systems, with staff forced to repeatedly reset equipment.

“It took a lot more time to take orders because we had to try and reset the till, then it wouldn’t work, then the till would shut down and come back up,” Ms Carbone said.

She said the disruption highlighted the importance of having a back-up option.

“Especially this morning, it makes you realise if we have everything shut down and it just doesn’t come on for days, we’re screwed,” she added.

“We just don’t have a concept of money after that.”

Ms Carbone encouraged customers to consider carrying cash or a physical card as a back-up.

“I think everyone would benefit from starting to carry more cash, even just a little bit, or having their physical card so they can get money out,” she said.

Telstra confirmed the outage was impacting some mobile calls and data connections, with more than 7,500 customers reporting issues through outage monitoring platform Downdetector.

It also affected Triple Zero calls for some Telstra customers in Western Australia, while regional train networks in Victoria and parts of NSW experienced interruptions.

Telstra advised customers still experiencing issues to restart their phones and said another update would be provided once all services were restored.

• With AAP

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