Community & Business
21 January, 2025
“Disgraceful” Telstra service - locals launch petition
A petition calling on Telstra to replace Gilgandra's congested mobile tower earlier than in 11 months time has got over 650 signatures.
For more than 12 months, Gilgandra residents with Telstra have suffered from a severe lack of mobile coverage – especially in the main street. After a series of broken promises from big telecommunication companies (telecom’s), Hayden Whiteman hopes to finally bring change to the town. On Thursday, January 9, Hayden opened a petition on change.org, an online petition hosting platform. So far, he has received over 650 signatures from locals, calling on Telstra to fix the mobile network.
The Gilgandra Weekly was told in early 2024, that when the closure of the 3G network occurred (originally scheduled for June-2024), the 3G infrastructure on the Gilgandra tower would be replaced with increased 4G capacity and 5G. Due to the delay in the 3G closure which didn’t happen until October 2024, it seemed that Telstra had all but forgotten these upgrades. In December 2024, nearly three-months after the 3G shutdown, Telstra again advised the Gilgandra tower experiences “congestion” and plans were “in the pipeline” for upgrades – no timeline was given.
Since Hayden’s petition opened and after various representations to local politicians, Telstra have given another vague response acknowledging the community’s frustration. “We acknowledge the coverage could be better,” said Telstra’s regional general manager Mike Marom, advised in a statement to Mark Coulton MP. “The network team is working to upgrade the tower and relocate it to a better location before the end of the year (2025). At this stage, we are completing the final development approvals (DAs), and if all goes according to plan, we are looking to have the tower operational by December 2025. Once the DA has been submitted and approved, I will be able to provide a more accurate timeline,” the response stated.
“We’re (MH Thomas and Gilgandra Real Estate) lucky with our business internet,” said Hayden.
“It’s been hard watching other people struggle. We have lots of tenants come in and pay bond or rent; we’ve had to connect them to our office internet.
“Watching other businesses use their eftpos connected to a SIM struggling with payments is disgraceful.”
Hayden believes that the worst of Gilgandra’s connection issues began shortly after Telstra and other major telecommunications companies began winding down 3G services. Places like Gilgandra slowly began to see the ramifications of our outdated mobile service infrastructure. The outcomes for businesses and individuals have been grave.
Businesses along Miller Street consistently deal with an inability to take payments, either due to eftpos machines losing function or customers unable to use banking apps – leading to embarrassment and frustration. Travellers are also unwilling to stay in town for prolonged periods without service. Paying customers don’t want to stay in town, and businesses are finding it hard to order stock from Dubbo and beyond.
“Lots of [my customers] have to go out into the street to transfer money,” said Kelly Zell of Victory Lap Sports. “I tell them ‘get out under the awning, go stand in the driveway’. That’s not great for anyone really.
“The worst thing is, I think, we’ve all gotten used to it. We know what to do to make it work and live with it. We shouldn’t accept that; we should be pushing for the standard of service everybody else has.”
Telstra’s response to complaints so far has been to suggest using the mobile network only when necessary, sticking to fixed networks – such as Wi-Fi – as often as possible.
“Which is craziness!” Hayden begun, “We are already in a low socio-economic area, we’re already ‘disconnected’. Why should we be disadvantaged by big telecoms and have to fork out for more infrastructure that they should have in place already?”
Currently, there are two Telstra towers in town. One is located behind the post office, providing coverage for a portion of Hunter Park and the council chambers. The second is by the GrainCorp silos on the Newell Highway.
Early last year, Telstra recommended customers struggling with service to switch to a different provider, but Hayden isn’t convinced.
“It doesn’t fix the problem. You’re still stuck with a telecom who has a stranglehold on the market. [But] there’s no other way to send an SMS. You have to rely on your data… it’s a catch 22. All major providers have different black spots around town,” he said.
Hayden, and at least 650 others around town, all think enough is enough. There has been strong encouragement on social media and around town to “keep lodging complaints… keep hounding them,” as one commenter on The Gilgandra Weekly Facebook wrote.
“Individually, Telstra won’t notice,” said Hayden. “As a [community] we need to make sure Telstra know how detrimental poor service is to us as a growing town. I’m not giving up on this. Nobody should.”
