Australia’s mobile phone network fails under increased demand, unable to connect some calls

Telstra and Optus customers are suffering as Australia’s mobile network cracks amid an unprecedented number of calls to Centrelink as coronavirus chaos continues.

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Unprecedented waits to speak to Centrelink staff were putting Australia’s entire mobile phone network in jeopardy, telcos revealed, with as many as four per cent of phone calls already failing to connect today .

And experts warned mobile phone users were likely to continue experiencing connection issues during the coronavirus pandemic ”as more people work from home and schools close”.

Widespread reports of problems on the mobile phone network emerged in the morning, with many callers unable receiving error messages when trying to place calls.

A spokeswoman for Telstra confirmed unmet calls to Centrelink were fuelling the problems by causing a huge surge in mobile phone use.

“Government call centres are experiencing three times the call volumes compared to last week and over 20 times the normal call volume,” the spokeswoman said.

“Overall mobile call volumes on certain routes and geographies are up by more than fifty per cent.”

Australia’s mobile phone networks are experiencing huge demand caused by long waits for Centrelink’s call centre and more people working from home. Picture: BRENDAN RADKE.

Australia’s biggest telco is also urgently trying increase the number of calls its mobile network can handle at one time after.

Telstra confirmed there was an “issue with some voice calls connecting due to congestion”.

“When trying to place a call on our network, you may have heard a message about congestion,” a Telstra statement said.

“Due to the growing number of people working from home, we’re seeing congestion impacting three to four per cent of calls on our mobile network.”

Telstra said “most of the congestion” was being driven by the high number of calls to government 13 and 1800 numbers.

“Working with Optus, we’re trying to fast track upgrades on our interconnection points as quickly as we can, which are contributing to this congestion.

“Yesterday we made good progress to improve things in the short term, which has allowed us to manage the higher call volumes.

Telstra confirmed data usage had not been impacted “at this stage”.

“We know this is frustrating,” the company said.

“Thanks for your patience in what is a challenging time for us all.”

Many new jobseekers reported lengthy wait times to reach Centrelink services over the phone yesterday, some saying they had been kept on the line for more than two hours only to be disconnected.

The long phone wait times also followed new advice from Social Services Minister Anne Ruston that Australians could not register with Centrelink online and needed to confirm their details over the phone to access assistance.

"Social Services Minister Anne Ruston urged people to go home and instead contact Centrelink by phone or online."

My daughter tried this only to have her call to Centerlink hung up on after nearly two hours - twice so far. The web site is so slow that her sessions times out...

— Johannes (@johannes_cbrand) March 24, 2020

I rang centrelink at 8am this morning and was on hold for two and a half hours until the phone call mysteriously hung up.

ANOTHER DEAD END!!!!

— Jamie (@Jamie_gene01) March 24, 2020

I waited two hours on the phone having called at 8am only to have it cut off at 10am. Not possible to apply online if you don’t have a CRN which you won’t have unless previously involved with Centrelink

— Vincenzo Tassone (@mondoW4) March 24, 2020

@Centrelink I have been trying for over two hours to even get in the line to get on hold. I just need to report but you've broken that at the worst time!!! I need help asap. Someone needs to respond.

— Jack.Ant.Drew (@JackAntDrew1) March 24, 2020

The advice directly contradicts what Government Services Minister Stuart Robert told jobseekers yesterday.

In addition to issues on Telstra’s network, Optus confirmed its customers were suffering connection problems as part of a knock-on effect.

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“Congestion on another carrier’s network is causing some Optus customers to experience intermittent errors when connecting to mobile and fixed services on that network,” he said.

“All Optus-to-Optus calls have not been affected.”