News
16 January, 2024
Outrage over outage
A number of people in Wamuran, D’Aguilar and Woodford have voiced immense frustration and dismay as their nbn and Wi-Fi connections repeatedly drop out.
While the problem has affected some residents for a number of years, the issue has been particularly troublesome for the past several weeks amid rainy conditions and storms.
Many residents are fed up and urgently wanting the problem rectified, but are unsure how this can happen.
A number of residents contacted The Sentinel, while the newspaper also reached out to Federal Member for Longman, Terry Young, as well as NBN Co.
Mr Young said he was acutely aware of the situation and was working with the Telcos and nbn to improve the services in the growing community.
Mr Young said reliable internet and mobile coverage was a necessity and not a luxury in the 21st century.
“When the Coalition was last in government, we were able to provide an additional 61,232 nbn connections for residents and an additional three mobile towers in the Longman community,” he said.
“Unfortunately, in the last round of black spot funding where 42 more mobile towers were announced, the Longman community was snubbed by the current government.
“My belief is that a big part of the solution lies with local councils who should make mobile communications part of the DA process when developers are creating new subdivisions.
“I encourage anyone who is experiencing mobile or internet issues to contact my office, so I can take up these issues with the relevant stakeholders on residents’ behalf.”
Head of NBN Local Queensland, Kylie Lindsay, said recent severe weather and main power outages across Queensland resulted in a loss of internet service for some homes and businesses in Wamuran, Woodford and D’Aguilar.
“While nbn services in the area have now been restored, we encourage anyone experiencing issues with their service to contact their internet provider to submit a fault as there may be impacts to some individual premises because of the severe weather,” she said.
“Your internet experience at home is influenced by a number of factors that is managed by a customer’s internet provider.
“For example, where your modem is placed, older devices or the wiring in your home can affect the quality (of) your experience.
“nbn is upgrading the network in Wamuran, Woodford and D’Aguilar.
“Households and businesses in parts of Wamuran can now upgrade from copper-based connections to full fibre via nbn Fibre to the Premises, and those in Woodford and D’Aguilar will be ready to upgrade to fibre from later this year.
“Full fibre is nbn's fastest and most reliable home internet connection. “Anyone that wants more information about the upgrades can visit the nbn website and enter their address.”
What you said:
"It was becoming very obvious that individual households did not have a problem and it appeared to be something on a much broader scale." - Lorraine Hagaman, Wamuran
"It really is atrocious. My partner and I can’t be on a device at the same time. If one is working, the other freezes and takes minutes to change screens." - Sally, Wamuran
"We have had multiple issues and were without internet for one month in November/December." - Helen Bleakley, Woodford
"The upshot of ours (is) that nobody can fi x it. I went to (an) Optus shop and signed up for fibre to the house installation – booked for February 8. It was our only solution, to pay for the upgrade, as they cannot or won’t bother fixing our copper line." - Amanda Smith, Wamuran
