News
30 January, 2024
Connection is back on line
After spending over five weeks with little to no cell service, residents of Delaneys Creek and the Woodford region are finally able to make and receive phone calls again.
Delaney local, Douglas Clark, reached out to The Sentinel last week, expressing his frustration that he and his neighbours had been experiencing since the December storms.
They had been unable to make or receive any phone calls, regardless of their provider.
“The bars show, we have wifi and can send and receive messages, but no phone calls,” he said.
Mr Clark and his wife had to travel to Morayfield or Caboolture for their phones to work again. Some neighbours’ phones were connecting in Woodford, but with very bad and choppy reception.
“I’ve made inquiries with my service provider (Aldi Mobile) who admits there’s a problem, but are unable to do anything because the towers belong to Telstra,” he said.
“Telstra wouldn’t talk to me since they aren’t my direct providers, leaving me to rely on the website info, all which said there were no outages in the area.”
The Sentinel reached out to Telstra for answers. A Telstra spokesperson investigated the matter further, resulting in the telco finding one of their base stations was not working properly.
“We had a closer, fresh look and it turns out the tower wasn’t working as well as it should, even though it was on-air and taking calls,” they said.
“We have done a reset of some key components which has improved 4G and 5G performance, but have also found an issue with one of our 3G antennas, which needs to be replaced.”
While the replacement of the antenna is scheduled to occur by Thursday afternoon this week, Mr Clark confirmed his service was back up and running, hopefully putting an end to the month-and-a-half phone troubles of the area.
“I wish to thank you and The Sentinel for your time, kindness and patience in resolving this matter,” Mr Clark said.
“You certainly have achieved more than I did.”
The Telstra spokesperson encouraged any residents still experiencing issues with their mobile service later this week to contact their service providers.
