Mareeba residents slam Telstra over ‘ridiculous’ and woeful service

Mareeba residents are outraged with what they say is poor Telstra service with mobile calls dropping out, plenty of spots where there is no mobile signal, and slow internet service. HAVE YOUR SAY IN THE COMMENTS BELOW

MAREEBA district residents are fed up with what they say is poor Telstra service with mobile calls dropping out, lots of spots where there is no mobile signal, and slow internet service.

They say calls to Telstra to fix problems involve long waits and frustrating outcomes and constant outages are impacting their businesses.

Nicole Smith said she had lived in Mareeba for 20 years and Telstra reception used to be great but was now unreliable.

“It takes many call backs to complete a phone call – not good when trying to run a business,” Ms Smith said.

“It drops out all the time, it is very frustrating.”

Mick Gleeson said the poor service was ridiculous.

“We are 10km from Mareeba and I only get one signal bar, or none, and have to move around to get service,” Mr Gleeson said.

“The internet varies from slow to ridiculous.”

Mareeba residents say internet service is slow or non-existent. Picture: supplied

Fiona Mcfarlane said problems began in December.

“It’s so wrong what Telstra is doing,” she said.

“Telstra hasn’t explained what’s going on– it’s extremely hard.

“Having no internet these days is very hard, especially when you have kids, and I pay for quite a few monthly subscriptions that require internet, so I am still paying, and I can’t use them.

“Outages have been bad since December – outages have been for a week up to a month at a time.”

Telstra regional general manager Rachel Cliffe said a number of factors could affect mobile coverage, such as the type of device being used, the distance from a tower, and terrain such as hills and valleys, vegetation or buildings.

“Performance can also be affected during busy times, such as school holidays,” Ms Cliffe said.

“We will investigate whether there is anything else occurring that could be affecting our mobile network’s performance in the area.”

She said providing regional connectivity was not just a Telstra responsibility but a challenge that had to be shared between federal, state and local governments and with other mobile carriers.

Telstra regional general manager Rachel Cliff said there could be a number of factors that affect mobile coverage in the Mareeba area.

Ms Cliffe said residents could improve mobile coverage by using their NBN connection to access Wi-Fi calling.

“In some cases mobile coverage in their home or vehicle can be increased by fitting an external aerial or a phone booster,” Ms Cliffe said.

Mareeba Shire Mayor Angela Toppin said reliable telecommunications connectivity was essential.

“Independent mobile coverage testing, including signal strength and network performance, of both the 3G and 4G networks demonstrates extensive mobile black spots,” Cr Toppin said.

She said the council wanted black spots reduced and internet speed and reliability increased.

A report by Infrastructure Australia released earlier this year said poor mobile and broadband coverage raised safety concerns and hampered regional development.

Originally published as Mareeba residents slam Telstra over ‘ridiculous’ and woeful service