Farmers all over Victoria say mobile phone and internet coverage is worse than its ever been, with one saying there's very little point in complaining about poor service.
Primary producers identified key issues, including:
- Storms, which knock out power, also affect telecommunications
- The service has been described as 'going backwards' in many parts of the state
- Telecommunications providers fail to talk with each other, when installing new services
- One producer, on the edge of Melbourne, has moved to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system
Narelle and David Drage, Lah, run a cropping operation in the Wimmera.
Ms Drage said it appeared the telecommunications signal had been 'turned down.
"The NBN appears to have lots of little dropouts," Ms Drage said.
"Mobile reception has always been an issue, WiFi calling has helped but calls still fall out, which makes me wonder what is going on with it."
She said she'd gone back to advising people to call on the landline, although most of David's calls went to his mobile.
"That makes it quite frustrating when you are on the phone to someone trying to discuss contracts and the call just drops out.
She said every time she had a conversation with Telstra, they told her to 'lodge a complaint.
"We've done that.
"We've been there for 20 odd years - but I don't have hours to spend on the phone to Telstra, I haven't lodged a report, because life is too short."
Giffard wool producer Steve Harrison said storms had seen power outages knock out telecommunications.
"You would think, in this day and age, it certainly wouldn't be an issue, but it seems to be happening more and more often.
"You think they would have generators, or solar panels."
He said the reliance on Zoom meetings, due to the coronavirus pandemic, had strained the system.
"Quite frequently you have to dial back in or turn your video off to get better reception," he said.
Telecommunications failure was also a safety concern.
"We have had one or two fires and all of a sudden you don't know where they are and you have to go outside and look for the smoke - or rely on someone to drive past, to go to the fire shed, because you don't know where they are."
Beef, lamb, goat, mutton and wine producer John Lakey, Lakey Farms, Sunbury says Gisborne South, 50 kilometres from Melbourne, is a mobile blackspot, with terrible reception.
"It has terrible reception," he said.
While the property was on Skymuster, for internet, the connection dropped out, was slow and unreliable.
"Nobody seems to know why," Mr Lakey said.
"My wife splits her MS team meetings between her laptop for video and her phone for sound.
"We don't even think about streaming television series."
He said they had just subscribed to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite service, as "word is this is a much better service than Skymuster".
Berriwillock dry-land cropper Garry Summerhayes says Optus put a new tower in the area in October last year.
"I can see the Optus tower, from where I'm standing, and yet I am using a Telstra booster - that's probably telling me something, I need to change.."
He said Telstra had now said they were going to put in its own tower, but he didn't know when.
"It's ridiculous, Culgoa is only eight kilometres down the road and Sea Lake is 15km on the other side and it's still only an average service.
"We have boosters in sheds - you can buy them for vehicles - and we have average coverage now.
"It's not the complete answer, you get 15 kilometres out and it won't' give coverage, I don't know why."
He said he didn't have as many problems with the internet, as it was connected to the satellite.
"Telstra could use the existing tower, that's the ridiculous part, and I don't know that will ever be solved."
Telstra's Victorian general manager Jenny Gray said the organisation knew of the importance of mobile coverage in regional areas and of connectivity.
"Mobile coverage and blackspots can be impacted by a variety of factors," Ms Gray said.
"These include the type of device being used, the distance from a tower, terrain (hills and valleys), tall trees or built infrastructure."
She said if people had no access to a mobile network, but could get an NBN wi-fi signal at home, Telstra encouraged them to activate wi-fi calling.
"This is a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls while in range of the modem.
"Programs like the Federal Government's mobile blackspot program have helped deliver new connectivity in regional and remote locations across Australia.
"Of the almost 1,300 blackspot sites selected by the commonwealth government for co-funding under the program since 2015, Telstra will be constructing more than three quarters of them."
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
