News
12 March, 2025
Fight for service goes on
HAZELDEAN residents have expressed their frustration with ongoing service and connection issues, especially during holidays and weekends, when they often lose the entire signal.
Resident of 13 years and Telstra customer, Wayne, said during the holiday season and on weekends when tourists drive into the Somerset Dam region, he might go days with only SOS service.
He added the poor service was worsening each year as more people moved to the region.
“There is such a huge influx of people and their kids, who all use their devices, that it exceeds the capacity of the towers,” he said.
“We are a lot of retirees living out here and we need our communication if something goes wrong.
“When these towers went up, we were about half the population we are today. Back then, the amount of signal received was enough, but we need more, stronger, and better coverage today to keep up with the population growth and tourist influx.”
According to network coverage maps from Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus, there are multiple ‘blackholes’ around the Hazeldean and Somerset Dam region.
Wayne said it “is not good enough,” especially since even those who do fall within the coverage, can’t use it during busy periods.
“In today’s world there is no reason so many of us who pay to get unlimited coverage should not be able to use it,” he said.
Wayne added that another issue was the placement of the towers, which sit behind the mountain range between Hazeldean and Kilcoy.
“We need one on this side of the lake or at least do something to expand that signal to reach us,” he said.
The frustration comes as Telstra said it had just completed upgrades to its mobile base stations that service Kilcoy East and Mt Kilcoy to give the community a better 4G and 5G experience, but resulted in the community being without phone service for over two weeks.
According to Wayne, these upgrades are irrelevant to Hazeldean residents, as it does not address their problems of network congestion.
The Sentinel spoke to two other residents who also claim to experience the same issue.
A Telstra spokesperson confirmed to The Sentinel mobile services in and around Hazeldean “may experience congestion on our network at times when there is an influx of visitors to the area over the holidays.”
“We design and manage our mobile network to provide the best connectivity available and plan for peaks and troughs in demand as best we can, and we’re monitoring the ongoing performance of our services in the area,” they said.
“We constantly enhance and optimise our coverage and capacity to cater to shifting customer needs. Big spikes in demand can mean customers may experience some congestion at times. If you do experience congestion, in all but exceptional circumstances, it should be short-lived, localised and temporary.”
According to the spokesperson, residents can improve their mobile coverage by using their NBN connection to access 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.
They also encourage business owners to talk to their bank about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their NBN or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions.
