Telstra has repeated its usual gaslighting and customer blaming performance to another New England community stranded without basic mobile phone services, this time Bingara told their poor service for the last week is just ‘congestion’ due to visitors on the Easter long weekend.
Locals in Bingara have been reporting very slow data speeds, call drop outs, and being unable to connect to basic internet since at least the 14th of April, but Telstra continues to deny there is an outage, and keeps telling people just to try again a bit later.
Businesses have lost thousands in the busy lead up to the holiday, with many unable to get their EFTPOS terminals to work, compounded by the ATM out of order. The issue was limited to Telstra customers, with other businesses and neighbours are helping each other out as much as possible through the extended disruption, particularly making sure people got their essential groceries on Saturday.
Some customers have been advised there was an ‘unplanned upgrade’ during the week, but Telstra did not confirm this, sticking to their ‘congestion’ line.
“Big spikes in demand can mean customers may experience some congestion at times, particularly during holiday periods when there’s an influx of visitors,” a Telstra spokesperson said.
“Our network in Bingara is very busy at the moment and we’re working to see if can make some adjustments to improve the experience.”
“If you do experience congestion, in all but exceptional circumstances, it should be short-lived, localised and temporary.”
“We also encourage business owners talk to their bank about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their nbn or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions.”
Far from short lived or temporary, the issues with Telstra’s mobile and particularly data services have been persistent and ongoing for the better part of a week, triggering many with memories of the six day outage that affected the small town of 1500 people in the lead up to Christmas 2023, less than 18 months ago.
One local said she has had trouble on and off since moving to town, and were complaining about an her service being unusable at 4am when given the ‘peak time congestion’ excuse.
“Their standard practice is to blame the users,” Leanne said.
“[Data] speed now varies between glacial and non existent.”
“They are treating ‘the bush’ with contempt. We pay the same as ‘city folk’ who get 24/7 internet,” they said.
‘Congestion’ was also the same thread-bare excuse given to nearby Bundarra that had no usable service after 3G was switched off before their 4G was upgraded to handle normal local demand. Bundarra resident Pia Thornton started a petition about it last November, and New England MP Barnaby Joyce held meetings with Telstra and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland about the wide and ongoing service issues, and delivered a lengthy speech to parliament about the ongoing issues and serious threats to safety as a result just before the election was called.
The Gwydir Shire has been so significantly affected by repeated outages and service failures that Council supported a petition that was started in March by a Gravesend community group calling for better service from Telstra, which is still available to sign in many shops and centres across the Shire.
In responding to the latest outage, Gwydir Shire Mayor Tiffany Galvin said she had again been in contact with Joyce who said he was ‘on it’, as well as Norther Tablelands MP Brendan Moylan who also contacted Telstra.
“I understand the issues that it has been causing in town over the weekend, especially [Saturday] morning with the local business houses having no internet. It is one of the busiest weekends of the year and business houses are missing out on sales due to EFTPOS machines being down,” she posted to the largest Bingara group on Facebook.
“It is constantly an issue right across the Shire. It is totally outrageous in this day and age to have this situation and quite embarrassing with so many visitors in town.”
“It is to be hoped that there is not a life threatening incident, or an accident, which cannot be called in due to having no service.”
Galvin has also requested a personal meeting with the communications minister herself when she is in Canberra in June, if not before.
Joyce is well briefed on the persistent issues with mobile coverage in Bingara and the safety issues it creates for the small community, Galvin and others raising it with him in one of his tours of the electorate last August.
For over two years, the single tower that covers Bingara has had consistent problems with power supply and data services – and lots of excuses for why the locals should just put up with it.
The Labor Government has made much of their Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation – or UOMO – which would require all providers to ensure there is mobile service coverage outdoors everywhere in the country. The advancement, made possible by the Low Earth Orbit or LEO satellite technology, is said to improve public safety, increase resilience during natural disasters, and provide an extra layer of coverage in areas previously thought too difficult or costly to reach.
However, universal SMS will not be in place until 2027, with the ability to make calls from anywhere too far away to be given a launch date. Even if the universal service requirement was in place, the ‘congestion’ excuse would get Telstra out of the obligation – as there is technically still service in Bingara this week – just not a usable service.
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