Some rural West Australians say their mobile signals and service areas have significantly decreased a week after the 3G mobile network shutdown.
Telstra began shutting down the 3G network nationally on October 28 and the service was switched off in WA on November 4.
Despite Telstra’s claim that the 4G network replicates the 3G service, farmers such as John Sanderson from Grass Patch, 700 kilometres south-east of Perth, say connectivity has been compromised.
“It’s been really tricky to make a phone call or continue a phone call once you get six or seven kilometres away from the tower,” he said.
“It starts breaking in and out. It’s pretty frustrating.”
Farmers say they’re worried that the network will fail them at crucial moments. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Jo Prendergast)
Many farmers, including Mr Sanderson, have Cel-Fi boosters in their vehicles to enhance their phone signal.
Mr Sanderson said he had checked his booster was on the correct settings for 4G, as per Telstra’s recommendation, but he was unable to hold an uninterrupted phone call where he had previously.
“We are selling grain, buying fertilisers, organising trucks — there is a fair bit going on,” he said.
“And there’s a safety aspect — we’ve got a lot of staff out there.
“If they don’t know where they are, if something goes wrong and they’re not near a Cel-Fi and they’re far enough out of town, they haven’t got any connectivity.”
At Coorow, 260km north of Perth, Daniel Birch said dropouts and blackspots on his farm where he previously had “very reliable” connectivity were a constant source of frustration.
“4G mobile boosters across the farm are now dropping out consistently,” he said.
Wheatbelt farmer Gary Cail says 4G does not have the same footprint as 3G on his farm. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Jo Prendergast)
‘Significantly worse’
Jibberding farmer Gary Cail previously voiced concerns about the impending closure of 3G and said some of his fears about connectivity loss on his farm 300km north-east of Perth had been realised.
“Our phone reception has been significantly worse than last year when we were doing the same on 3G,” he said.
“I’ve been talking to other farmers to see how they’ve been going.
“One mate I was talking to, we had to ring each other back three times.”
Mr Cail said since switching to 4G he had to make and receive calls from hills more often than he had to on the 3G network.
“There’s no doubt in my mind we have gone backwards as far as our phone signal is concerned,” Mr Cail said.
“I don’t like to make too big of a noise complaining but it’s frustrating to be allowed to go backwards.”
Telstra says it is confident 4G replicates the 3G footprint. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
‘The same extremes’
Telstra WA regional manager Boyd Brown said the telco was serious about its promise that 4G coverage would be the same, if not better, than 3G, and encouraged anyone with concerns to come forward.
“The amount of traffic on that 3G network was down around one per cent of the total volume of traffic on our network, so in the most part 4G is the network that’s being used,” he said.
“If we talk about the distance it would travel, going back a little in time, we did have 3G set so it travelled a little further than 4G.
“But part of the equivalence in providing 4G coverage to match 3G is something we have spent a lot of time, effort and energy doing so that 4G went to the same extremes.”
Mr Brown said since the shutdown in WA, Telstra had not received many complaints.
However, he said there had been a “couple of instances”where 4G had not replicated 3G coverage because “fortuitous coverage” had been lost.
Mr Brown said those instances had involved people picking up a 3G signal in areas where Telstra had not expected them to.
He said Telstra had already begun repurposing the 3G spectrum for 5G.
He said it was critical people using boosters or antennas ensured they were compatible with 4G and were operating on band 28.
To contact Telstra call 132 200, use the Telstra app or send an email.