Data drop-out woes span region
• Derby was packed over the weekend which impacted service to the town and surrounds. Image Ben Jones.
By Taylor Clyne
Residents across the greater North-East region have been left feeling frustrated following another weekend of little service on their mobile devices after an influx of visitors to the popular Blue Derby Mountain Bike trails.
The disruption to the service usually happens over weekends and is worse on public holidays and during special events in the town.
Those in surrounding townships including Branxholm, Winnaleah, Herrick, Pioneer and Gladstone are unable to load or refresh their screens impacting access to data, emails, social media and more.
Phones are showing that they have coverage on 4G and 3G networks but no band width to load anything making it difficult to identify the issues to Telstra.
Winnaleah’s Julie Radford is one of many residents affected by the busy periods.
“Our property is in the direct line of sight to the Mt Horror tower, so you’d think we have the best reception of anywhere,” she said.
“But you can almost guarantee come Friday afternoon the signal will start to drop out and then on a Sunday night or this week come Tuesday morning because of the long weekend it will return again.
“It impacts our business as we can't log into our emails over the weekend or watch anything on services, we pay good money for.
“We, like many others, have spoken to Telstra about it but they keep giving us the run around and say there is no issue that they can see with the service.”
Mrs Radford said there was no denying that the mountain bikes has been great for the area but something needed to be done for all residents living in the region.
“The facilities need updating.”
Dorset Mayor Greg Howard said Council was aware of the issue which is believed to be more widespread than just Derby and surrounding towns.
“It encompasses those areas North of Scottsdale and right through the Waterhouse region too where farmers have been reporting insufficient coverage to manage their centre pivot irrigators via their phones.
“I’ve been in contact with Senator Wendy Askew and have also had a discussion with Federal Member for Bass Bridget Archer regarding the issue, as well as numerous discussions with Telstra management,” he said.
Telstra Regional General Manager Michael Patterson said during busy periods, like holidays, there can be greater demand on the network in different locations, which means data speeds customers experience in these areas may sometimes be a little slower than they’re used to.
“We carefully monitor and balance the demand on our network in these specific locations to manage the higher number of users.
“We know it can be frustrating, but it isn’t an issue unique to any one provider, especially over busy periods.”
Mr Patterson said the company is looking at how it can upgrade the network to cater for the growing demand in the North-East.
“As part of the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program, we’ll be building a new 4G small cell site at Pioneer before the end of the year, which will improve coverage to this area and remove a notorious mobile black spot.
“We’re also working through upgrade plans to our mobile network in this area and we’ll have more to say on these when they’ve been determined,” he said.