{"id":366413,"date":"2025-11-05T23:01:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=366413"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:01:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:01:44","slug":"residents-left-in-dark-by-telcos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/11\/05\/residents-left-in-dark-by-telcos\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents Left In Dark By Telcos"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_366415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-366415\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-366415\" src=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones.jpg 740w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones-269x167.jpg 269w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones-285x177.jpg 285w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones-340x211.jpg 340w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251105mobilephones-263x163.jpg 263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-366415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some of the large group of local residents which met with Cr Jane Erkens, Cr Linda Little and Mayor Kathy Duff in Nanango on Wednesday evening<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>November 5, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A group of Nanango residents, angry about the repeated mobile phone and internet outages in the local area, met on Wednesday night to air their grievances.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting was called by local councillor Jane Erkens and held at the old Masonic Lodge Hall in Gipps Street.<\/p>\n<p>Also in attendance were South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff and Cr Linda Little.<\/p>\n<p>Individuals shared their frustrations about repeated outages by both Optus and Telstra.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples of the problems raised included:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>A local medical service asking police to do a welfare check on patients after they could not be contacted by telephone for days<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Optus towers out of service for maintenance with no warning to users<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Landlines removed and the phone service tied to the NBN, meaning no contact when the power goes off<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One resident said she had bought a dual-SIM mobile phone so she could swap between Telstra and Optus &#8220;but each is as bad as the other&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Others, who lived in areas where maps showed coverage, had bought extenders but still only had one-bar connections which often dropped out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The meeting agreed the lack of coverage was a health and safety issue, particularly during emergencies and for people living alone or working in paddocks.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was also a mental health issue.<\/p>\n<p>People complained they could not contact ill or elderly relatives or check on the safety of children and grandchildren during the recent storms.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;I have no contact with the outside world unless I get in my car and drive somewhere&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>I can&#8217;t get emails, I can&#8217;t pay bills&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;I have to drive to Kingaroy to talk to my kids&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Residents said the Telstra mobile network had degraded since the 3G network was switched off; the new 4G and 5G towers don&#8217;t have the same coverage.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;We pay the same amount as the city, why don&#8217;t we get the same service?&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One resident shared an anecdote that her son had been able to make video calls from a Bedouin tent while on holidays but often could not contact his mother in Nanango &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cr Erkens said the complaints would be compiled and submitted to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells and local MP, Nationals Leader David Littleproud.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She invited anyone who would like to add to the submission, but were not able to attend Wednesday&#8217;s meeting, to contact her <strong><a href=\"div1@sbrc.qld.gov.au\">by email<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related article: <a href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/11\/03\/meeting-to-discuss-phone-blackspots\/\">Meeting To Discuss Phone Blackspots<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Nanango residents, angry about the repeated mobile phone and internet outages in the local area, met on Wednesday night to air their grievances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":366415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,22,3],"tags":[1131,30],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Residents Left In Dark By Telcos - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A group of Nanango residents, angry about the repeated mobile phone and internet outages in the local area, met on Wednesday night to air their grievances.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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