But Telstra said it would not affect customer service.

Telstra Country Wide area general manager Chris Cusack said the right resources would remain available in the Hunter ‘‘to get, and keep people connected’’.

‘‘We need to organise our business to operate effectively and efficiently and meet the needs of our customers in a competitive industry and that’s what these proposed changes are all about,’’ Mr Cusack said.

The cuts will effectively halve the number of technicians working in the area five to 10 years ago, according to the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union.

NSW assistant secretary Shane Murphy said the move would leave nearly 80 technicians across the state without a job, and called on the federal government to intervene.

The federal government recently said that Telstra would receive $11billion in government funds for the national broadband network rollout and $100million to retrain the Telstra workforce, he said.

“Three weeks later, Telstra workers face the sack,” Mr Murphy said.

‘‘Telstra should not be forcibly retrenching skilled, highly experienced staff ahead of this major project, it should either make use of their experience or retrain them. Clearly Telstra has hung up on communities in regional and remote NSW.”

Mr Cusack said the two issues were unrelated, with Telstra having only signed a non-binding financial heads of agreement to participate in the rollout of the broadband network.

He said technicians were given the option to apply for other roles.