Telstra outage leaves Milingimbi, Elcho Island without 4G coverage as resident calls for urgent repairs

Thousands of Territorians have been hit with rolling mobile outages for months, blocking their access to basic services and cutting them off in emergencies. A local MLA says the patchy service is not good enough.

Thousands of Territorians have been hit with rolling mobile outages for months, blocking their access to basic services and cutting them off in emergencies.

Elcho Island (Galiwin’ku) has endured intermittent mobile outages for the past four months, with reception out for 10 hours on Thursday night, the seventh night in a row.

Milingimbi remained without access to Telstra’s 4G service for a fifth night after the service dropped out on Monday.

Mulka MLA Yingiya Guyula said the 2500 residents of Galiwin’ku had ongoing phone problems since December, with weeks-long outages meaning the community had gone through 28 nights without reception.

“When the sun is shining the community get reception and when the sun goes away, the community don’t know if their phones will work or not,” he said.

“(This) week the community have spent every night in isolation, and this has been a regular occurrence.”

Telstra Regional general manager Nic Danks said telecommunications in remote communities often rely on solar panels to provide electricity, with a fault in that network believed to be behind the overnight outages.

While Mr Danks said technicians restored mobile reception to Elcho Island on Thursday, community members told the NT News they had experienced a 10 hour outage.

Mr Guyula said by ignoring the phone service issues in Galiwin’ku and Milingimbi, “Telstra and the government are playing with people’s lives”.

“Sadly like many remote communities there are major health issues. If communities are in isolation and there is an emergency in the middle of the night the outcomes could be catastrophic,” he said.

“If this was happening in Darwin the issue would be fixed after the first outage but we have a mobile tower being held together with sticky tape while waiting for an upgrade that won’t happen until July.”

“This is not good enough … the government is failing in their duty of care to the community.”

A Milingimbi woman – who did not wish to be named – previously told the NT News that her community would likely be left without service over the Easter long weekend.

“It’s just ridiculous … which is sad for the community,” she said.

As of Thursday, the woman said her community had not heard from Telstra during the outage’s initial stages and her work, like others’ in the community, had been impacted.

“The local medical service, Miwatj – which happens to be the only health facility in Milingimbi – has not been able to operate effectively as well over the course of this outage, which impacts upon all the sick especially emergency services,” she said.

“Our only banking institute, Traditional Credit Union, has also completely stopped operation since the outage, which means most – if not all – community members have not been able to access their money, or complete transactions, which then has a flow-on effect such as inhibiting on their ability to buy basic necessities.”

The woman said the worst part of it all was being left in limbo by the national telco provider.

She said basic services were “already hard to come by” in a remote community and those barriers were exacerbated by the outage.

“Major cities are never left without this essential service for this length of time and if they were, compensation is always given,” she said.

“The fact that we are constantly left behind in terms of urgency when it comes to resolving issues is something our community members have always had to deal with, and it’s about time something is done about this.

“We need the nation to know how poorly serviced communities such as Milingimbi are and there needs to be the same outcry for us as there is everywhere else in Australia.”

On Thursday Mr Danks said the recent cyclone and torrential weather had been a major challenge to maintaining and repairing remote reception.

“Telstra works to get services back on air as quick as we can, but we know there has been a number of recent outages in this area,” Mr Danks said.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused during this time.”

Mr Danks said a recent upgrade to the Arnhem Land transmission network would mean improved service to the mobile base stations, “with new equipment providing more capacity and speeds on the mobile network”.

He said Oenpelli and Gunbalayna would be upgraded by the end of April, with Galiwin’ku expected to begin in July.

Telstra outage leaves NT town without mobile coverage

March 27: An ongoing reception outage has left Milingimbi residents without access to a 4G signal for almost a day.

Telstra NT regional general manager Nic Danks estimated the outage began about 4pm Tuesday.

He said the lack of service was caused by a loss of main power to Telstra’s exchange in Milingimbi, disrupting fixed line and mobile services.

But the town’s residents took to Facebook to flag the outage as early as Monday.

“Something wrong with the tower causing 4G issues as of (March 25),” one user wrote.

“Telstra don’t know when it will be fixed.”

Mr Danks said the provider was working to secure flights for a power technician to get to the site and investigate the issue.

He said the NT government had been informed of the issue.

“There are no mobile bases stations from any other carriers in the area, but NBN and Starlink satellite services are still in operation, so mobile calls over the Wi-Fi network are still possible when in signal range,” Mr Danks said.

“We have also spoken to a number of local residents who have contacted us and given them an update.

“Telstra appreciates the community’s understanding and we hope to get services back on as soon as we can.”

Originally published as Telstra outage leaves Milingimbi, Elcho Island without 4G coverage as resident calls for urgent repairs