SA’s outback phone service goes quiet for 11 days
INTERMITTENT phone service has plagued parts of South Australia’s outback for 11 days, increasing dangers for local residents as temperatures rise to scorching levels.
INTERMITTENT phone service has plagued parts of South Australia’s Outback for 11 days, increasing dangers for local residents as temperatures rise to scorching levels.
William Creek Hotel owner Trevor Wright was frustrated at Telstra’s “she’ll be right” attitude leaving the area, 1000km north of Adelaide, without the service as temperatures reached 41C on Friday.
“The end result is that this can cost lives,” Mr Wright said.
“There are families up here and people who are pregnant, so it’s not on.
“We’ve been bloody lucky there hasn’t been a major issue but this isn’t just about William Creek or Oodnadatta.
“We need SA to start looking after rural and remote towns and give them the same services as cities.”
Telstra confirmed 11 remote-customer sites, including the William Creek Hotel and surrounding stations, had experienced intermittent coverage since November 23.
Under Telstra’s universal service obligation, the defined restoration times for landlines in locations such as William Creek is within three days once the fault is reported.
A Telstra technician was sent on Wednesday to try to fix the issue associated with power from a solar energy site and was still on-site yesterday.
Mr Wright notified Telstra about a week ago of the issue, which had also affected the pub’s EFTPOS.
He said the time it had taken to fix the problem was a “new record”.
“At what stage does Telstra take responsibility for poor management and become accountable?” he said.
Telstra can offer an interim phone service, while waiting for the other service to be repaired, or if this is not possible, a compensation payment may apply if the service is not restored within the time frame.
Telstra’s regional general manager Mark Bolton apologised for any inconvenience caused to customers and hoped the service would be restored “as soon as possible”.
Mr Bolton urged any customers in the region experiencing issues with their landline to report the fault to Telstra on 132 200.
In March last year, William Creek got a small satellite dish and Optus 3G network, allowing residents and tourists to use their mobile phones but only within a 3km radius of the town.