Phone black spots anger SW residents
Busselton residents believe poor mobile phone coverage across Busselton is an emergency waiting to happen.
Mobile coverage black spots between Abbey and Yalyalup are causing headaches for businesses and households.
Tutunup resident Nicole Coachrane has been in a year-long battle with Telstra over her home phone and mobile.
She said she had lodged a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, but was still not seeing any results.
"I've had ongoing problems with my home line and although I have a blue tick rural phone, I am still unable to get any mobile coverage at my house," she said.
"I have four kids and luckily we haven't had any emergencies, but if something did happen it would be quicker to drive the kids to the hospital than try and call an ambulance.
"Telstra are reaping the rewards of service fees, but the services are often not able to be used.
"Busselton keeps growing and they aren't developing the infrastructure quick enough to keep up." Telstra South West area general manager Boyd Brown said there were six mobile base stations around Abbey, Broadwater, Geographe and from Yalyalup to Capel.
"Telstra is also in the process of installing and commissioning the latest 4GX technology into the wider Busselton area," he said.
"This technology will provide high data throughout and better in-building coverage for customers with compatible devices, with an increase in network capacity also benefiting those using the 3G and 4G layers of the network."
A Busselton hotel manager who did not wish to be namedsaid terrible phone coverage was giving his resort a bad name.
"We have people visit the hotel from interstate for conferences and they can't even use their mobile phones," he said.
"We get hammered for something we can't control and Telstra employees have told me they aren't willing to spend the money on fixing the problem."
Vasse MLA Libby Mettam said she had spoken with residents and Telstra about improving the coverage problem.
"The response I received back from Telstra was that whilst there is no funding in their current budget to do this, they will certainly look into this for 2015-2016," she said.
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