Mobile and Internet Service has been frequently dropping out or non-existent for several months now but over the last 6 weeks our internet service has got to a point that it is non-existent. It has frequent dropouts and internet speeds so slow you could mow an acre of lawn waiting for a page to load. 

We run a business relying on the internet and many businesses within Australia operate on the assumption that everyone has access to the Internet. Consider the recent changes that the National Australia Bank in Guyra has made to its opening hours on the basis of people’s access to online banking, and the increased cost of postage throughout Australia on the basis that many people have access to email.  

Conducting business online with very poor mobile and internet service is not just difficult, it ist impossible. We can’t open email attachments (accounts) and we are unable to make payment transfers online. Accessing something like Auctionsplus means a trip into Guyra to ensure reliable access in the auction period.

Business aside, we have three school age children, with one in  the final years of school. They are frequently expected to do research and homework online and at peak times, like after school, it is impossible to complete even the simplest of tasks. 

Several years of discussion to seek some resolution to our difficulties has come to no avail and more recently we were told by Telstra there was nothing they could do but recommended that we write to our Local Member. Outsourcing to overseas call centres does nothing to help in resolving our internet difficulties. It is not unusual to be transferred between 5 or 6 different departments with everyone passing the buck. This can take hours hanging on and hanging on and repeating the same information each time you get transferred and the operators you speak to have no idea of the communication issues in rural Australia. 

The prospect of using the Internet to watch movies, upload photos, keep in contact with friends and family is not even an option due to current internet speeds and service and also the current data allowances allowed. 

Our current internet plan offers 8 gig of data at a cost of $64 a month. We can’t get NBN wireless, we can’t get ADSL. We are on mobile broadband which is operating on 3G. 

The current Sattelite Service is oversubscribed and overloaded and from what we hear people are experiencing similar problems. 

Telstra offered free internet on Sunday the 3rd April. How generous!!!!! Well it would be if you actually got internet. On this day again our mobiles weren’t working and our internet wasn’t working so this means no downloads. 

We have made numerous calls to Telstra, to Telstra County Wide in Armidale, the Telstra shop Armidale, our local member whose office said we have to contact our local Federal Member. Called Barnaby Joyce’s office who said to write a letter to voice our concerns. Joyce’s office suggested we need to have numerous people register their complaints. 

Increasingly the topic of conversation with people in the New England is the inadequacy of Telstra services and the impact of this on their businesses.

It is important that people register their concerns and they can do this by contacting Barnaby Joyce’s office at 

barnaby.joyce.mp@aph.gov.au and, as painful as it is, registering their complaints with Telstra. Keep the pressure up please. 

Nicholas and Karen Morgan