By Diana Paton
When the high winds occurred on Wednesday 15th January a high number of residents experienced power outages, some of which lasted several days.
A large number of residents also reported mobile phone outages, with smartphones only showing 1 bar or SOS only. Even smartphones showing 1 bar were unable to call or text. Incoming calls were being diverted directly to voicemail. Apps like Hazards near me, were unable to be used.
It creates a feeling of incredible isolation when you are faced with no power and no mobile reception. Families were unable to contact elderly relatives, and people using medical devices had no way of contacting help.
We have had power outages before, but never lost mobile coverage to the extent we experienced this time. Imagine if it were bushfires which knocked out the power to the mobile towers. It’s a concerning situation.
Personally for me, I didn’t find this response particularly helpful as we were without mobile coverage from Wednesday afternoon to late on Friday. I work from home and so do other members of my family. We are in a bushfire prone area, so I’m looking for something more reliable. So from my investigations these are the options (if you know of others let me know):
- Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). If you have this plus a back up power option (battery/generator) to the modem, then you should retain access to the NBN, and can use Wifi Calling to keep in touch with the world.
- Starlink. Again with a back up power option (battery/generator) to your equipment you will retain internet access and can utilise Wifi calling.
- Skymuster/Skymesh. Again with a back up power option (battery/generator) you should retain access to the NBN and can utilise Wifi calling. We tried to get FTTP to our premises this time last year, but were unsuccessful, so we are now looking at Starlink.
We raised the issue with Telstra. This was their statement
Telstra Regional General Manager Michael Marom:
Widespread power outages following last week’s severe weather affected parts of our network in the area. Our network sites have back up power systems, which kept services running for as long as they could. We had teams on the ground accessing affected sites as soon as it was safe to do so and managed to restore the majority of sites by the weekend. We worked closely with authorities and the power companies to get everything back online as quickly as possible and we thank everyone for their patience.
