Mobile outages unresolved
April 19, 2023
By Daisy Baker
Telstra customers throughout the region have been subject to expansive mobile coverage issues since Friday, with technicians still on the ground resolving the matter.
Throughout Winnaleah, Derby, Pioneer, Herrick and Scottsdale some users have been unable to make or receive calls on their phones, even when it shows they have full 4G service.
Other complaints have included not being able to make a successful call or if they do get through, the receivers cannot hear anything other than the sounds of being underwater.
Meanwhile others have been unable to call Telstra to report the issues.
Regional general manager for Telstra in Tasmania Michael Patterson said Telstra technicians are currently working on restoring an issue which is impacting their mobile services across the North-East.
“Mobile coverage in this area is provided from our tower at Mount Horror, and there is currently an intermittent issue on our transmission cable which helps connect this tower to the broader Telstra network,” he said.
“Unfortunately this is impacting mobile data speeds and also causing issues with call dropouts and poor clarity for some users.
“However, landline services are not impacted, nor are nbn services.”
The Mount Horror Tower which provides 3G and 4G coverage to the region was upgraded in December with new equipment and antennas, with the aim of increasing the capacity of the site and improving the mobile coverage and connectivity for local residents.
While the current issue is being resolved, residents with access to wi-fi signal are encouraged to activate the free wi-fi calling setting.
This setting is available on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls when in range of the modem.
Local businesses with EFTPOS who are impacted by the coverage issues are encouraged to contact their bank for more information about using a fixed line or Wi-Fi/nbn internet connections.
The EFTPOS network is not managed by Telstra but by the associated banks or financial institutions.
MLC Tania Rattray said her office had been fielding calls in recent days from many frustrated Telstra customers who had been experiencing issues with service, and she had been contacting Telstra on their behalf but with little explanation available.
Mr Patterson apologised to customers for any inconvenience and said they hope to have the issues resolved later this week.