Telstra has issued an apology and confirmed an investigation is now under way after an elderly client died when she was unable to contact anyone following a fall in country NSW.

Great grandmother Merl Roberts made the switch to a new NBN Telstra phone at her home in Peak Hill, which has a population of less than 800.

The 75-year-old lived alone but had an Oricom emergency bracelet set up, and linked to her every day landline, after her history of heart problems and lung complaints.

Camera Icon Merl Roberts, right, with her son.

But after signing up to the NBN in June, Merl began to have trouble with her phone and despite technicians promising to come and fix the problem three times, nobody showed up.

“There’s a timeframe that we can’t account for which if her phone was connected, may have saved her life,” Merl’s son Quentin said.

“If something went wrong, she pressed the bracelet and it activated through the phone, it activated an alarm to an agency and to the hospital and they were able to respond.”

But when Merl fell down her back stairs, she was unable to call for help or activate her emergency bracelet.

Camera Icon Mrs Roberts had an emergency bracelet that connected through her phone.

“It’s frustrating because it was preventable,” Quentin said.

“It’s frustrating that we live in a society and we can’t get a phone fixed within three weeks for a 75-year-old old lady.

“We don’t know the time frame, how long she was unconscious.”

Merl was rushed to hospital but died two days later.

“At the end of the day, it’s Telstra’s responsibility for mum’s phone,” Quentin said.

Camera Icon Merl Roberts died days after she had a fall at her NSW home.

“We couldn’t contact them, they hadn’t sent anybody out.”

In a statement, Telstra told Today Tonight that it was “deeply saddened” by Mrs Roberts’ death.

“We recognise Mrs Roberts faced an unacceptable delay to having her phone service repaired,” the Telstra spokesperson said.

“We are treating this situation very seriously and we're undertaking a detailed investigation into how the repair was managed.”

NBN Co. also issued its own advice for medical bracelet owners to register their details on the Medical Alarm Register.