Dudley Residents Left in the Dark Over Mobile Outage

BY DAKOTA TAIT

Dudley residents say they have been left without mobile phone service for more than a week due to a service outage in the Telstra network.

3G and 4G outages have reportedly also affected the Mount Hutton, Windale, Redhead and Whitebridge areas.

While the Telstra website says the outage was caused by a technical issue in Telstra's network, reports of when will be back up and running are unconfirmed.

Dudley resident Corey Gleeson says he spoke to a Telstra employee at a local tower this morning - and was told repairs were being conducted on the tower and that it would be fixed later this afternoon.
In the meanwhile, residents have had to make do without a mobile connection.

"With no service, you have no contact with anybody pretty well outside the tower range," said Mr Gleeson. "The moment that you get in your car and get out of the area and connect to another tower, you get bombarded with messages and missed phone calls."

Mr Gleeson is hopeful the service will be fixed soon, but says customers have been "left in the lurch" and without any promise of compensation.

"If I pay for a month's service, and I've had three weeks of pretty high interruptions, I thought that constituted something getting compensated for customers."

The outages are still currently ongoing. Telstra is yet to provide a comment.

Image credit: https://outages.telstra.com.au/

Optus Tower To Be Built In Fullerton Cove

BY OLIVIA PORTELL

It has been confirmed that an Optus mobile phone tower will be built in Fullerton Cove after months of lobbying from residents.

The announcement comes after complaints of patchy service in the area and follows confirmation of a Telstra tower for Boat Harbour near Anna Bay.

The site will have 12-hour battery capabilities, which will ensure the tower will continue to function through a blackout.

Paterson MP Meryl Swanson says that it is important that locals can use their mobile phone in the event of an emergency.

"Fullerton Cove is home to a large population of retirees, many of whom consider their lack of mobile phone reception to be a safety issue," she says.

"As such a quick and direct line to emergency services is essential."