Concerns for emergency response during rolling Telstra upgrades

Concerns for emergency response in regional WA during rolling Telstra upgrades In short: Telstra has been criticised for conducting week-long upgrades that could leave customers without service for up to eight hours a day. A State Emergency Service manager says mobile coverage is vital for coordinating staff in an emergency. What's next? Telstra has apologised for the inconvenience and says upgrades will improve service in the region. Telstra customers in regional Western Australia say the telco's decision to conduct week-long upgrades without providing backup services could hamper emergency responders in one of the state's most prolific rescue zones. The town of Gnowangerup, 350 kilometres south-east of Perth, sits at the base of the Stirling Range in the state's Great Southern. Gnowangerup, home to about 1,200 people, is one of WA's most profitable grain-producing regions, and popular year-round with tourists visiting Bluff Knoll and the Stirling Range National Park. Last week, Telstra told customers to expect service outages from Friday, August 14, lasting up to eight days, with outages of up to eight hours a day as it upgrades its 4G and 5G networks. The timing and duration of the upgrades have "frustrated" customers and come at a time when the telco's regional service was facing increased scrutiny. It has also raised concerns in Gnowangerup that first responders may be unable to muster volunteer crews effectively in an emergency. Emergency concerns Gnowangerup State Emergency Service (SES) manager Mandy Hanna said its volunteers were often the first to respond to a road crash or distress call on Bluff Knoll. "We're quite busy in the Stirling [Range] so if we can't be contacted at all we're not going to know if anything's happening,"she said. "My main concern is because we have that road crash capability, this is affecting people's lives." Ms Hanna said she had a personal Starlink satellite but stressed most SES members relied heavily on mobile phones to coordinate their movements in an emergency. "Worst case, we can't be contacted for a road crash, and someone loses their life because we just don't know," she said. "It's the same with St John's Ambulance [volunteers]; if we can't be contacted, we don't know." A Telstra spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience and confirmed the planned upgrades would not impact NBN, Satellite internet services, landline services, or mobile coverage from other providers. They said calls to Triple Zero (000) would connect to another mobile network, if available. "We're sorry for the disruption, but unfortunately this work is what's required to upgrade mobile connectivity in the area," they said. "The team have planned this to minimise disruption as much as possible." Business taking IOUs The impact is being felt by some businesses in the town, including Darren Robertson, who owns the town's only cafe. He said the outages of up to eight hours coincided with his opening hours, making his eftpos system unusable. And with the ATM next door out of money, he said the cafe had been taking IOUs and hoping customers would return to pay. "Yesterday it never worked at all … This morning it was on until about eight o'clock, and then it went off," he said. "The locals are fine, but it's impacting my business because we've got people coming through that are from out of town, and a lot of people don't carry cash these days." Mr Robertson, who also uses a Starlink satellite at home, said he was considering replacing his Telstra service at the shop with another satellite to avoid future blackouts. He also asked why Telstra could not use similar technology to maintain services for customers while the network was down. "It goes to show how much we rely on Telstra, but I don't know why they couldn't set up a little portable tower or something while they do work on this big one," he said. Shire chief executive David Nicholson has strongly criticised Telstra's communication and planning, suggesting shorter outages would reduce the impact on the town. "I think it's quite atrocious and really poor customer service," he said. "There should be some plan where perhaps the outage wasn't so long during the day. "I get they've got work to do, but eight hours, I mean, my goodness, it's just basically down tools if you rely heavily on Telstra." Telstra says customers can continue to make calls and send texts during the upgrades by switching on wi-fi calling, which requires access to a wi-fi source.