A WISEMANS Ferry resident had no mobile reception for almost two weeks in January and can’t find out why.
Steven Marlborough lives at Wisemans Ferry on a pension and does not have a landline as it is cheaper to have a mobile. The no-phone period started on January 21 with a blackout and then the phone reception disappeared. It did not come on again until February 2. “The internet was out for a week too,” he said.
He said his carrier is Medion, an Aldi company, but they use Telstra infrastructure. Medion told him they did not know why he had no service, and said to contact Telstra.
When there was a drowning down the road on January 29, Mr Marlborough said neighbours couldn’t ring out on their mobiles from the riverbank to alert the searching helicopter that they had found the person.
Mr Marlborough said despite repeated calls to his carrier and to Telstra, he could not ascertain why he had no reception. “They didn’t let us know it was going to happen, and didn’t tell us how long it would be,” he said. “When the businesses at Wisemans Ferry complained, they got service after a week.
“Telstra rang me and said ‘the case is closed’,” he said. “I said ‘no it’s not’. They said they couldn’t tell me why I had no service. What if I have a medical emergency? I said I’m taking this all the way.”
He said he contacted his local MP Julian Leeser who said two new base stations were planned for the area – but Mr Marlborough said they wouldn’t do him any good due to their location.
When the Gazette contacted Telstra they said his service provider, ALDIMobile’s Medion, was responsible for providing him with information about his service, not them. “As he is not a Telstra customer we cannot access any account details to look into any issues he may have experienced,” the spokeswoman said. However she said they had had no service faults on the Wisemans Ferry tower during that period, though there had been problems at the Simpson Hill tower, about three kilometres from the village.
The Gazette contacted ALDImobile who said from January 21 – February 2 there were no outages in the Wisemans Ferry area, but that Mr Marlborough’s service issues could have been his phone.
“This period occurred after Telstra closed its 2G network, meaning customers who continued to use a device not compatible with our 3G and 4G networks after December 1 may have experienced difficulties with their service,” a spokeswoman said.
“Currently, ALDImobile provides a 4G coverage footprint of 95% and combined 4G and 3G of 98.8% of the Australian population. ALDImobile.com.au includes a detailed coverage map. Customers can call 2534 on an ALDI phone or 1300 989 000.”