Telstra 4G network fail source unexplained

Telstra’s network boss Mike Wright is unable to say what caused its 4G network to fall over.

The service disruption has affected Telstra customers on the 3G and 4G networks.

Telstra’s network boss Mike Wright is unable to say what caused its 4G network to fall over, pointing to a longer than expected time taken to switch customers on to the 3G network, as the main reason for the latest service outage to hit Telstra’s customers.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has

spoken to Telstra CEO Andy Penn seeking further information about the cause of today’s outage.

The Minister’s office has been informed by Telstra that the company is still investigating the root cause of the issue.

Speaking to the media in Brisbane, Mr Wright said that the 4G layer of Telstra’s mobile network suffered a failure at around 10:00am forcing the telco to move all off its customers to the 3G network.

However, the switchover process did not work seamlessly, according to Mr Wright.

“The big shift in traffic caused interruptions in the total amount of data the network could carry and also caused some calls to fail.”

“From around midday we began to isolate some of the elements that were problematic and we have progressively had services restored, we have most of our customers back on line now,” he added.

Mr Wright did not say what the source of the problem affecting the 4G services and how many Telstra customers in total were affected.

While the outage prompted the NSW Police to issue a warning that it could prevent people from reaching emergency services, Mr Wright told the media that the majority of customers affected had problems with their data services.

“The impact was more around their ability to transmit data and there were some who couldn’t make voice calls.”

“The Triple triple-0 service continued to operate, of course if a customer is in a location outside of our coverage or lost their coverage they could use the emergency calls only service on their device,” Mr Wright said.

He added that there was no wholesale compensation on the cards for affected customers.

The latest nationwide disruption is another embarrassment for the incumbent which has seen its mobile network go to pieces twice in three weeks. While Telstra’s management maintains that its network superiority gives it the edge over its rivals, the claim has been severely dented this month.

We’re working to fix an issue impacting some mobile services. Sorry for the inconvenience.

— Telstra (@Telstra) May 21, 2018

The latest service disruption affected major metropolitan centres including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and regional areas including North Queensland.

It also knocked out Telstra’s status page, the web site used to check for outages.

Earlier this month, Telstra’s 4G voice services were down across the country after problems with a planned equipment in Telstra’s Exhibition Street exchange in Melbourne.

The outages heap added pressure on Telstra’s CEO Andrew Penn and the telco’s board, with investors criticising the measures undertaken by management to tackle the competitive pressures hurting its bottom-line.

Meanwhile, Telstra’s customers remain agitated about the hefty prices charged by the telco and its poor customer resolution processes.

Apart from the two mobile outages, Telstra also suffered a major disruption to a key interstate cable this month that left customers unable to make triple-0 emergency call services.

Telstra, which is under investigation for the incident, said that its back-up equipment was ­unable to cover for an outage ­believed to have been caused by a lightning strike in central-west NSW.

The telco has a long-term contract worth up to $22 million a year to operate the service. The current contract, in effect since July 2012, was negotiated as part of broader negotiations between Telstra and NBN Co.

Telstra also levies a $2 per call fee from the other telcos every time one of their customers makes a triple-0 call, with the telco pocketing the proceeds on top of the $22m ­contract.

The telco’s shares are hovering near a seven-year low of $2.80 in afternoon trading.

With David Swan and Remy Varga