Community & Business
27 June, 2026
Is the new Telstra tower an improvement?
The Gilgandra Weekly cadets, Shane DeBritt and Molly Shannon, hit the streets to ask locals if the new tower is really doing what it promised.
Gilgandra has recently welcomed a brand new Telstra tower, claiming to offer the towns' main street reprieve from spotty and unreliable internet.
Bek Hazelton, staff member at Gil News and Gifts and Gilgandra local
Q: Have you noticed a difference from what the internet was like before compared to now?
A: I think it's pretty much all the same. It probably hasn't been long enough for us to really notice. We have a loyalty card where people tap their phone and that may have improved a little bit. A lot of the time customers would come in and have no service, so they'd have to go outside. It still happens, just maybe not as frequently, but I wouldn't say, wow, this is amazing, there's been such a big difference. If you notice it, it's only a little tiny bit.
I'm with Optus personally, and I think my service has gotten worse. I was right next to the Telstra Tower last week, and I had no service. Whether that’s related or not, I don't know.
Mandy Leslie, Gilgandra local
Q: Have you noticed an improvement in the quality of the internet? How does it affect your work?
A: There’s not a thing different. I had a team meeting this morning and it was glitching and I couldn't use the visual effects on the video. So no, at this stage there’s no difference, unfortunately.
It’s very frustrating for work because you can't have a meeting, you can't get the information that you need because you’re constantly freezing in and out. You need to turn the video off to get better sound. A lot of people that live in town will go home to work because their home Wi-Fi is better than the internet here.
Kelsey Hutchison, staff member at Rohr's Home Timber and Hardware and Gilgandra local
Q: Have you noticed a difference from what the internet was like before compared to now?
A: Yeah I have. I now get service in IGA and around other businesses where I wasn't getting it before. You couldn't transfer money, you couldn't call anyone if you wanted to. You had to go to the library to either get service or to use the free wi-fi.
It affected us at [Rohr's Home Timber and Hardware]. We didn’t get any internet and people were going out the front to try and find some.
I didn’t get any service at my house but you'd go 100 metres down the road and it would be fine. Some of my friends use Optus and would have service down the main street but nowhere else, where I didn't have service down the main street but got it everywhere else. It was just really patchy.
Linda Burgers, owner of Café 41
Q: How has the tower affected your business? Have you noticed much of a change?
A: Well, I've had people come in and they can't transfer money, so they've had to either go for a drive and find enough service to transfer money. That's how difficult it was for customers. It was very frustrating and I can’t afford to lose customers, but I can't afford to give it away either.
Donna Foran, owner of This N' That
Q: Do you think the new tower is working?
A: We didn’t have any trouble until they turned off 3G, we couldn’t send text messages from our work mobile and there was no service at all. I didn’t have trouble like other businesses, having to go outside to get service to use the EFTPOS machine. We had a lot of people complaining when coming in and they didn’t have any service. But now the tower’s up it’s improved a lot.
Caryn Dwyer, Gilgandra local
Q: Has the Telstra tower worked? Do you think there’s a clear improvement now?
A: I didn’t really notice much of a difference at home, but I could tell the difference down the main street since I volunteer at the craft shop. Beforehand, I couldn’t really do anything on my phone. It was difficult to do Facebook posts and any banking at the shop. There’s a little room for improvement, it’s not as good as the internet at home but I’m able to do stuff at the craft shop which makes me happy.
