Reports of a major Telstra outage across Australia

CUSTOMERS are slamming Telstra after a major outage affected its 4G network and impacted thousands of voice calls across Australia.

VOICE calls across Australia were impacted by a major outage in Telstra’s 4G network today.

On Twitter, Telstra told customers throughout the afternoon it was “looking into an issue impacting some 4G and NBN voice calls”.

The telco said 3G calls were not impacted.

Customers across the country said they were unable to receive or make calls. However, it appears the problem has now been fixed.

“Telstra has resolved an issue impacting some 4G voice calls on its national mobile network,” a Telstra spokesman said in a statement late this afternoon.

“We are sorry that some customers were unable to make or receive calls as this was occurring.

Telstra say the issue was caused by “technical changes” made ahead of upgrades to mobile traffic control equipment in Telstra’s Exhibition Street exchange in Melbourne.

“The issue was progressively resolved by reversing the changes. The issue became known about 1pm and was resolved about 3pm,” the spokesman added.

However, on social media, Telstra customers on the 4G network reported web access and texting was unaffected, and only calls were impacted.

Aussie Outages has received nearly 4,000 complaints from Telstra customers locked out of their voice call service, and that number likely represents just a fraction of those affected.

Hey @Telstra I can’t make any calls - what going on? pic.twitter.com/xWsmIATznN

— Elysse Morgan (@ElysseMorgan) May 1, 2018

Is @Telstra 4G down? Seriously, I'm bloody cursed.

— Sonia Murphy (@Sonia_Murphy) May 1, 2018

Hey @Telstra is your network cooked again? #telstrafail

— Ricky Fleming (@yawnee15) May 1, 2018

Our team are looking into an issue impacting some 4G voice calls – calls over 3G are not impacted. We’re working to fix ASAP. - Jo

— Telstra (@Telstra) May 1, 2018

The website reports that complaints started coming in at 1:50pm today.

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, South Yarra, Kew, Merrylands, Parramatta, and Brunswick were the first areas to complain about a disruption in service.

The communications giant has taken to Twitter to individually respond to customers complaining about the outage.

“Our team are looking into an issue impacting some 4G voice calls — calls over 3G are not impacted,” a Telstra spokeswoman said on Twitter. “We’re working to fix ASAP.”

The Telstra outage page has not been helpful to customers. Picture: Telstra/supplied

However, Telstra outage page was slightly less helpful. It simply shows an error message.

“Unfortunately something went wrong,” the statement read. “Please check back later.”

Telstra advised users to switch to its 3G network as it is wasn’t affected by the outage. Users on Aussie Outages reported having success with this temporary fix.

Aussie Outages has received nearly 4,000 complaints from Telstra customers. Picture: Aussie Outages

HOW TO TURN YOUR 4G OFF

If you ever need to do this again in the future, you can change the settings on your iPhone by going to Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Disable 4G.

After a minute, set it back to 4G and set it to Data Only.

Android users, go to your homescreen, tap and hold the notification bar at the top and slide your finger down. Swipe your finger to the left to reveal more options.

You should tap and hold dobile data, then tap network mode.

To turn off 4G, make sure LTE/WCDMA/GSM is not enabled and WCDMA/GSM is.

NSW Police say the outage may have affected those attempting to call Triple Zero (000) or its Police Assistance Line (131 444).

This outage may affect those attempting to call Triple Zero (000) or Police Assistance Line (131 444).

Until the issue is resolved, police are advising those affected, where possible, to use a phone belonging to another carrier or a landline when attempting to call these numbers https://t.co/EVZGvlSARo

— NSW Police (@nswpolice) May 1, 2018

The major outage comes on the day Telstra announced it would launch its first smartphone plan with unlimited data, giving customers the freedom to stream, surf and share without worrying about additional data charges on the nation’s best mobile network.

It comes ahead of a scheduled announcement by rival telco Vodafone who were due to reveal later today they were rolling out unlimited data plans.

The deals will allow phone users to chew through as much data as they wish without the worry of overindulging and being slugged with higher monthly bills.

“We have invested billions in our network, pioneered world-leading 4G speeds and pushed our 4G coverage out to more than 99 per cent of the population,” Telstra executive Vicki Brady said in a statement today.

“We are now introducing the unlimited plan Australians tell us they want while maintaining the superior network experience they expect.”