Bill Smith gets next to no Telstra mobile phone service despite living in Norman Gardens suburbia

A Rockhampton resident has expressed his frustration over ongoing phone signal issues in his ‘middle of suburbia’ home, revealing a major telecommunications provider once told him it was because his house had ‘thick walls’ and a ‘tin roof’. READ MORE HERE.

When Bill Smith says he doesn’t get mobile phone service at his place, you would assume he lives out in the bush – but in fact he lives in the middle of suburbia in Norman Gardens.

Mr Smith lives in Rosewood Drive, off Norman Road, a few minutes drive from the Farm Street IGA and just 15 minutes from Rockhampton’s city heart.

He is lucky to get one bar of mobile phone service when he out the front of his home and has no hope of getting service inside the home.

“Even now I’ve got one little dot which is about normal,” he said, sitting on the back patio of his home.

“Sometimes out the front I can get maybe two but I don’t think I have ever gotten three.”

It’s a frustrating issue in today’s digital era as everyone calls on the mobile and landline phones are becoming more and more obsolete.

Just the other day, Mr Smith missed a phone call from the doctor who had tried to call to book an appointment but despite being home all day and having his mobile in his pocket, he didn’t see the missed call until hours later.

“You just don’t know what phone calls you are missing or you get the missed phone calls when you’ve had the phone on you all day,” he said.

“I’ve learnt to get by with it but you have to be realistic with it.”

Mr Smith is with Telstra but it’s not just Telstra’s service that is poor in the area - when he has visitors who are with other providers like Optus, they have poor service.

When his son was visiting and working remotely, he had to work from his laptop in the caravan out the front on the road where he could get enough signal.

Neighbours also report the same lack of service woes.

Over the years Mr Smith has made complaints to Telstra and the ombudsman.

He has been given excuses ranging from it is because he has insulation in the roof, it is because he has a tin roof or because the house has thick walls.

After more back and forth, Telstra finally confirmed his house was in a “Telstra declared Black Spot”.

Telstra once offered to install a phone tower on Mr Smith’s roof, at a cost to him of $2,000 – but the telco giant couldn’t guarantee the service; so Mr Smith declined to do so.

In communication between Telstra and Mr Smith, there doesn’t seem to be a solution.

“It looks like we will continue to reside in a mobile phone black spot forever,” Mr Smith said.

Providers have reported a growing demand and need for telecommunication facilities in the past few years as mobile usage has grown and Covid-19 has meant a lot of people are working from home or remotely, which has in turn put more pressure on data usage.

An application was presented to the Rockhampton Regional Council table at a meeting in July.

The plans were for a 30m 4G/5G 30 monopole on land next to Rockhampton Baptist Church on Norman Road.

The site was chosen by the developers as an area of Rockhampton not well serviced by wireless telecommunications and distant from existing services.

There were some submissions from neighbours around the application in regards to health concerns, the proximity to houses, wildlife and visual impacts.

Councillors had concerns about future land use as the proposed telecommunications tower was to be in the middle of the vacant land, meaning houses would have to be built around it in the future.

The application has not been approved by council at this stage and planning officers are going back to the developer about alternate locations.