Lack of warning for service disruption sees telecommunications giant face backlash

Narrabri businesses and residents have been left fuming about a lack of notification for a disruption to telecommunication services.

Business operators opened their doors on Monday to find telecommunications and related services had been impacted, and people found their Telstra mobile phone coverage non-existent due to maintenance works to a phone tower.

Some businesses reported issues with operating EFTPOS facilities in addition to phone line outages.

The works, coupled with the lack of notification, have drawn criticism due to its poor timing at a peak period for businesses in addition to the flurry of harvest activities being conducted across the shire.

Mobile phone service was restored late on Tuesday, however, issues with coverage were still being reported by people on Wednesday.

Civic leaders have voiced concern that the outage happened with no consultation with the community.

Narrabri Shire mayor Ron Campbell welcomed the upgrade to local telecommunications, however, he queried why people weren’t warned ahead of the disruption.

Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton and state Member for Barwon Roy Butler voiced similar concerns.

“There has been no consultation about this, no warning that this was going to happen, and this has caused a huge amount of damage and cost to business, not to mention many other difficult circumstances that this situation puts you under,” Cr Campbell said.

“Why Telstra can’t bring a mobile tower in when they do these sort of upgrades is beyond my comprehension.”

Mr Coulton said as soon as his office was made aware of the issue, Telstra was alerted, and his office remained in constant communication about the disruption.

“While upgrades are essential to ensure regional Australia has adequate telecommunications services, the timing and lack of notice of this particular upgrade was not ideal and has understandably caused a great deal of frustration in the community,” Mr Coulton said.

“My office has received a number of complaints which have all been lodged with Telstra.

“Telstra has been reviewing this issue, in particular the lack of notification to the community, and worked overnight to ensure the network could be restored sooner than originally planned.

“It is hoped that 4G services will be restored by late this afternoon and the 3G and 5G services will return tomorrow,” he said on Tuesday.

Mr Coulton said it is important to remember that Telstra is a private business, and the federal government has no jurisdiction over its commercial decisions.

“However, we do work closely, and my office is always available to assist if anyone experiences issues with Telstra and other telecommunications companies,” Mr Coulton said.

Mr Butler questioned the process for choosing a planned outage during a busy period of the year that involves harvest and Christmas shopping.

“At a time when small businesses are in their peak sales period, and harvest is still in process, this outage couldn’t come at a worse time,” he said.

The Telstra outage has had a ripple effect from the main street to the farm gate.

The recent floods delayed harvest and as many farmers play catch-up, the outage has caused communication breakdowns and logistical nightmares.

“It’s terrible timing,” said farmer Craig Strickland who lives in Narrabri but travels to Burren Junction for work.

“It’s harvest time, you can’t ring anyone, you can’t use your phones to organise logistics like trucks in Narrabri, and what happens if you were hurt?

“Telstra is poorly – there was no warning and during harvest everyone uses their phones.”

In a statement, Telstra said it was investigating why its customers weren’t notified of the outage.

“We’re currently upgrading our local mobile base station at Narrabri to deliver improved 4G as well as our next generation 5G coverage for the first time, which will deliver better speeds and capacity for the community,” Telstra regional general manager Michael Marom said.

“We’ve had to shut down the site while part of the work is underway.

“Customers should’ve been given the heads up beforehand, which unfortunately didn’t happen.

“We’re investigating what went wrong, and we’re sorry for what would have been a shock, particularly during this time of year.”