WA farmers continue to grapple with mobile coverage issues one month after 3G shutdown

The WA Nationals are calling on the Federal Government and Telstra to boost mobile coverage in the regions, amid fears the recent shutdown of the 3G network poses “significant safety risks” this bushfire season.

Opposition Leader Shane Love said his office had been “inundated” with reports of “unreliable or non-existent” service from residents and businesses across the State since the shutdown on October 28.

He has called on the Federal Government to “intervene immediately” as poor connectivity continues to disrupt critical services.

“Telstra’s decision to shut down the 3G network without providing adequate alternatives has left regional WA stranded,” Mr Love said.

“Connectivity is not a luxury; it is an essential service, particularly in areas prone to bushfires or with limited access to health services.”

Mr Love said farmers from the Mid West to the Great Southern were dealing with dropped signals, dysfunctional equipment and increased isolation.

“Farmers report that critical machinery reliant on mobile networks, such as GPS systems, is now unusable, delaying essential operations during harvest,” he said.

“Small business owners have been forced to contend with constant network issues, hindering cloud-based services like MYOB.”

Geraldton Nationals candidate Kirrilee Warr, who farms at Chapman Valley, said poor connectivity was a problem locally and she had concerns ahead of bushfire season.

“We’ve already had a couple of bushfires in our own Shire of Chapman Valley, and we are heavily reliant on telecommunications to get the word out there that there’s a fire in your vicinity,” Ms Warr said.

“Thinking that we can rely on satellites is a possibility, but we know that technology is not fully developed, and not every handset that a person owns has the ability to receive those messages.”

Telstra regional general manager Boyd Brown said works had been done to ensure the network would stack up.

“In gearing up to switch off our 3G network, our team upgraded and optimised over 12,000 sites so that we could be confident our 4G network would match the coverage footprint of our 3G network,” he said.

“Since switching off our 3G network we’ve re-used spectrum at thousands of mobile sites across the nation, delivering improved capacity and performance to many regional towns and communities.”

Telstra first announced the closure of the 3G network in 2019, and said outdated devices were the most common reason for people not receiving coverage.

National Farmers’ Federation spokesman Peter Thompson urged farmers experiencing connectivity issues to be “vocal” with their provider.

“Telstra and Optus committed to 4G equivalence to their mapped coverage and tested and signed off on this commitment prior to closing their networks,” he said.

“Now the reality is that we are living in a world without 3G and farmers are finding unexpected glitches with the new system.”

Mr Thompson, who farms near Roma in Queensland, said he had experienced mixed results on the new 4G network.

“Areas that were marginal-to-no-signal now have signal, but there’s been a few issues with phone calls staying connected, which may also be device-related rather than network related,” he said.

“4G is technology that we’ve had for a long-time… it’s more than likely something that needs to be fine-tuned rather than a total disaster.”

Farmers can also contact the Regional Tech Hub on 1300 081 029 for free, independent connectivity advice.