Castlemaine Optus customers have contacted the Express in recent days frustrated by issues with their mobile phone coverage.
Some local customers had received notification of planned work on a mobile phone tower, which was expected to begin on March 8 and be completed by March 21. But others say they had no notification, and have been experiencing network issues since as early as March 6.
One businesswoman said many local Optus customers she has spoken to had little to no connection on their phones.
“Personally, I have not been able to receive any incoming phone calls since March 6, and I have heard this is going to continue until March 21 – no confirmation of that though – just what’s going round on socials,” she said.
“Then Sunday (March 3) I got an SMS from Optus saying it was going to take longer than they thought – even though I had never been given any dates for how long it was going to take anyway.
“I am trying to run a business, and am definitely losing work because of this, let alone the disruption it is causing when you try to explain to friends and family you can’t take their phone calls (they don’t get it.).
“Aside from the day-to-day disturbances it is causing, it is extremely frustrating not knowing what’s going on.”
An Optus spokesperson confirmed the company was currently undertaking planned works in the area.
“Optus is committed to improving coverage in Victoria, including Castlemaine, by investing in initiatives such as the Victorian state-funded Connecting Victoria mobile program (CVMP),” the spoksperson said.
“This involves upgrading existing sites with 5G infrastructure to bring a heightened level of network performance and coverage in the region.
“Optus took steps to notify customers in the area ahead of time that the planned maintenance may result in disruption to some mobile services. We thank our customers for their patience at this time and we look forward to bringing improved coverage to Castlemaine from March 21.
“Fixed services such as nbn are not impacted, meaning customers can still make and receive calls by enabling Wi-Fi calling or using apps like WhatsApp and FaceTime.”
TELSTRA TOO
The latest Optus network issues come just weeks after Telstra customers in the Harcourt North region were impacted by mobile network coverage issues.
One local resident told the Express the issues began after planned works in November 2023. Eight weeks after informing Telstra of the ‘failed coverage’ issue, they were advised by Telstra that the tower where their mobiles were connected was experiencing heavy traffic, which affected their ability to use the mobiles effectively.
In correspondence from Telstra they were advised ‘At the moment, there is no planned network upgrade as per our engineers. They are fully aware of the issue being experienced on that address but we’re unable to provide a fixed or tentative date as to when the coverage will improve’.
As a goodwill gesture, Telstra waived the local resident’s bill. However, with no guarantee of improved service in the foreseeable future they have since decided to change to another provider.
“We have signed up with Optus and so far our service seems to be okay,” the resident said.
