It’s a story that’s all too familiar, but one which this time could have had tragic consequences.

Ms Silk, 74, is a patient lady but she has now been waiting two whole months for Telstra to connect her phone, after moving into a Wollongong housing department apartment on December 5.

Ms Silk, a pensioner, said Telstra originally told her they would come on December 15 or 16. She waited at home all day but the technician did not show up.

Then she was told January 20 or 21. Again Ms Silk waited at home but the technician did not show.

In between these promised connection days, in late December, the delays could have cost Ms Silk more than inconvenience. She wound up in hospital after suffering an asthma attack. 

During the attack she had been unable to use her mobile phone because she had earlier burned through her prepaid mobile credit - two lots of $30 – on hold to Telstra about the line.

Luckily her daughter came to visit and found her distressed, unable to breathe.

“She popped me up to the hospital,” Ms Silk said. “I was very, very lucky.”

Given her age and condition, Ms Silk should have been given priority service for health reasons.

But when the latest date promised – February 3 or 4 – came and went, with Ms Silk waiting at home all day, her neighbour Judy Arber called the Mercury.

“She could have been dead,” Ms Arber said.

In the meantime Telstra sent her a bill for $24, which Ms Silk, for the first time ever, is refusing to pay.

“I always pay my bills straight away,” Ms Silk said. “But I’m not going to pay that bill until I get a phone.”

A Telstra spokesman admitted there was “no excusing” the confusion from the missed appointments.

“We wish to apologise for the issues Ms Silk has experienced,” he said.

“We have a case manager who is assisting Ms Silk and we are working to the matter as soon as possible.”