By Kirra Livingstone
HINTERLAND residents say they receive better phone coverage in the jungles of Indonesia than in Landsborough following a series of ongoing outages.
Telstra is currently upgrading its services in the Landsborough region, telling customers to expect nearly two weeks of outages.
But the timing has been made uncertain with a series of messages announcing the start and then delay of the upgrades.
Upgrades were to have started on May 15, but another message said they would instead start from May 20 for 13 days.
On Telstra’s website, they have stated there will be planned maintenance outages on the 3G and 4G mobile networks to be completed at 11pm on June 2, with further outages to end on June 5 and 7.
Hairdresser, Natalie Hazelden, said she was forced to use Telstra’s 4G network after someone drive over her Starlink service last week.
“Our business couldn’t make phone calls, nor access the appointment book, which we are relying on for our work so we didn’t know when clients were booked in or cancelled,” she said.
“Telstra kept on sending me texts that they are upgrading the network. But I’ve been getting these messages for months now and it is getting worse.
“The Sunshine Coast is so far behind, they can’t even keep up with the remote jungle in Bali, I had better reception there then I do in Landsborough.”
Telstra has been contacted for comment.
Mooloolah Produce owner, Lauren Lindfield, said she was forced to buy Starlink after a week of having no internet or phone reception, and lost $6000 worth of potential sales due to her EFTPOS machine not working.
“I’m absolutely furious, I know it’s not the workers faults, but I could tear Telstra to bits and put it this way, it has really annoyed me that much that I’ve ordered Starlink which is going to cost a fortune,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have to do that but we had to do that because we need to know when we have the front doors open, we can trade.
“Some people have gone to nearby ATMs to get money out to pay whereas other people have offered to do a bank transfer, which has helped but it’s still not what it should be.”
Bionic Self Storage and Container Hire office manager, Charmaine McGregor, said the outages affected her business last week, despite using Optus and Starlink services.
“Optus seems to think it could be an NBN outage, but we even had troubles with our NAB EFTPOS machine, NAB informed us about the Telstra outage which wasn’t corrected until May 29,” she said.
“Our business relies heavily on phone and email contact as well as online inquiries so when the internet is out, there’s a delay in responding to clients.
“Even for existing clients it’s a problem if there’s a delay to get back to them in regards to something about their account, it impacts our business a lot.”
An NBN spokesperson said there were no planned works that would result in temporary outages in Landsborough, and that they were not aware of any outages in the town.
Landsborough’s Ethan Maitland said he hasn’t had stable internet connection for days.
“It’s been really bad for about a week, whenever I’m at home the internet and phone connection are super slow, and as soon as I drive out of Landsborough it goes back to normal,” he said.
The outages come as small business are warned not to be caught out when the 3G network is switched off in coming months.
“The 3G switch-off will affect more than just your mobile phone signal,” The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Bruce Billson, said.
“It could affect EFTPOS terminals, security systems and cameras, scanners, industrial routers, tablets, smart watches, asset tracking tools, surveying instrument, water and environmental monitoring and many of the wireless operating systems on farms.”
“Even some 4G-enabled devices have aspects that are powered by 3G, but users may not realise until they stop working, so it makes sense to have those checked as well.
“It is vital small, family and farming businesses take action urgently to find out if they will be affected and if so, upgrade their technology before business-harming disconnection and technology dysfunction is the first they learn about it.”
Mr Billson said small businesses should contact their telecommunications provider or device manufacturer to confirm if a device will be affected.
“But beware of scams and only contact mobile providers using trusted information and links,” he said.
Telstra recently announced that it will delay its 3G network switch off until 31 August 2024. Optus is planning to switch off its 3G network from 1 September 2024. TPG Telecom/Vodafone has already switched off its 3G network.
Those on the Telstra or Optus network can text “3” to the number 3498 and will receive a response whether that device is affected.
