Community & Business
30 December, 2024
BEST OF 2024: Poor Telstra coverage in Gilgandra continues to rile
Another year is at an end without Gilgandra having a proper solution to the dreadful Telstra service in the area.
First published December 11, 2024.
Another year is at an end without Gilgandra having a proper solution to the dreadful Telstra service in the area. Locals have been talking about the issue online for months and were told to expect tower upgrades in the lead up to the 3G switch-off in late October.
The Gilgandra Weekly approached Telstra about the ongoing issues with service in the local area and asked if the recent closure of the 3G network has further highlighted an existing problem in this location.
In a statement, Telstra regional general manager Michael Marom said “congestion” was impacting the mobile base station servicing Gilgandra.
“Our mobile base station that services Gilgandra is delivering 4G to the community, but there is currently some congestion,” Mr Marom said.
“We have plans in the pipeline to move our mobile site to a better location and also upgrade the infrastructure, which will deliver 5G to the area for the first time and improve coverage and capacity in the area,” he added.
Mr Marom offered these solutions for Gilgandra residents experiencing poor service until the infrastructure upgrade and mobile tower problems are resolved.
“Residents can improve their mobile coverage by using their [National Broadband Network] nbn connection to access Wi-Fi calling,” he said.
“This works even during an outage and is a free setting on most popular mobile phones, which allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls.
“We also encourage business owners to talk to their bank about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their NBN or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions,” Mr Marom concluded.
Questions remain
The Gilgandra Weekly sought clarification of what constitutes “congestion”, as well as a proposed timeline for the Gilgandra mobile site move and upgrading of the infrastructure locally to enable 5G – but did not receive a response to any of these questions. It was noted that no reference to the potential impacts of the 3G shutdown was mentioned in the Telstra statement.
One complaint from Gil to TIO
While locals are willing to complain on social media about poor service, few actually submit formal complaints to organisations like the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), the external dispute resolution scheme for the telecommunications industry in Australia.
One single complaint was made from the Gilgandra local government area to the TIO in the most recent data published by the authority on November 13 for the period July to September 2024.
In July, the TIO made a 31-page submission to the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review offering insights into the issues being experienced by rural, regional and remote telco consumers, and making six recommendations to improve service provision.
In its submission, the TIO reported that it had received 51,854 phone and internet complaints from consumers living in regional, rural, and remote Australia between July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024, collectively referred to as “regional” Australia.
“We help resolve many complaints that are relevant to consumers from regional Australia, including complaints about connection delays, poor service quality, faults, [and other issues],” the submission stated.
On the issue of 3G shutdown impacts, the TIO stated in its submission – made before the shutdown occurred – that this could potentially impact consumers in various ways.
“Not only will this shutdown change how consumers communicate through mobile phones, but it will have a broader impact on device compatibility across medical alarms, tablets, smart watches, security systems, antennae, farming equipment, and a range of other devices that connect to the 3G network,” the submission stated, which also made reference to “unreliable 4G services”.
