AceNewsDesk – When her mobile and internet service cut out for the 10th time in a day, outback business owner Belinda Murphy was at her wit’s end.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Sept.02: 2023: ABC Technology News

Her business might be located just 500 metres from the Telstra exchange in the north-west Queensland town of Julia Creek, but it is customary for the connection to drop out several times a day.

Ms Murphy says it is ultimately costing the business sales and frustrating her staff and customers.

She was forced to drive the six-hour round-trip to her nearest Telstra store in Mount Isa, where she said staff recommended she switch to Elon Musk’s low-orbit satellite internet connection, Starlink, which she did.

Unreliable phone and internet connection is an issue that has long plagued every rural community in the north-west, most of which are serviced by Telstra.

It has resulted in fed-up residents ditching the nation’s largest telco and turning to other services like Starlink, Sky Muster and Wi-Sky to pick up the slack.

“We’ve lived with poor connectivity our whole lives but things are getting worse,” Carpentaria Shire Council Mayor Jack Bawden said, adding that “you can’t make a phone call without it cutting out several times”.

He said key Telstra mobile service projects had repeatedly been put on hold.

Bec Britton helps run the Boulia Camel Races, which generates about $2 million for the local economy each year.

She says poor mobile and internet service is a threat to events that are the lifeblood of small country towns.

“This year, businesses could not use their EFTPOS machines because the connection was pretty much non-existent,” Ms Britton said.

While Telstra said it had contacted the event organisers several times throughout the year to discuss solutions, Ms Britton said the event would be increasing its Starlink uptake next year instead.

Country customers seek competition

Meanwhile, other communities are turning to local internet provider Wi-Sky, with founder Will Harrington saying demand for the service is booming.

Mr Harrington started Wi-Sky in 2016 after struggling with connectivity on his grazing property at Richmond.

Since then, the company has used government funding to erect dozens of 26-metre-high internet towers across the outback, including recent projects in the remote towns of Karumba and Normanton.

He says many residents are ditching their mobile service completely to opt for internet calling using his towers.

The company is also in discussion with Cloncurry Shire Council to provide a service at a popular tourist spot and will also be building towers along a 150-kilometre stretch between Croydon and Georgetown, which it hopes to complete in mid-2024.

“Competition is always a good thing and I guess what is really important out here is reliable connectivity, but also local support,” Mr Harrington said.

“When we’re trying to attract more people out to the regions, poor connectivity is a huge deterrent, especially when trying to get young people out here.

“We’re excited to be offering some decent, fast, reliable internet to more and more of these communities.”

Residents unaware of alternatives

Kristy Sparrow started the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) in 2014, after witnessing the difficulties residents were having with establishing reliable internet and voice services.

That sparked the development of the Regional Tech Hub, a free, independent service funded by the federal government’s Stronger Regional Digital Connectivity package to help those in the bush navigate the different technologies available.

Ms Sparrow says the outback’s biggest problem is that people are not aware of all the options available to them and how best to set up their network.

“Businesses using mobile-only EFTPOS machines really need to be considering redundancy and getting mobile/wi-fi EFTPOS,” she said.

“Large events such as the Boulia Camel Races and those during tourist season will congest local mobile networks, so it’s important businesses and residences in town have fixed connections and don’t rely solely on mobile.

“Connectivity is becoming an increasingly complicated space and we see the greatest issue at the moment in rural areas is connectivity literacy. 

“Local governments, even state governments, don’t know a lot in this space, so they’re often blaming the mobile provider when there are other options available to them but they’re just not aware of them.

“It’s definitely something that governments could work on.”

In a statement, a Telstra spokesperson said connectivity was “not just a Telstra responsibility” but one “shared between federal, state and local governments and with providers”.

The telco pointed to several programs in the pipeline for the region, including “major upgrades to our fibre and transmission networks between Normanton and Burketown as well as to Mornington Island”, which it said would “improve capacity and resiliency”.

Cr Bawden said projects promised in the Gulf had been “pushed back and pushed back … it’s a never-ending waiting game”.

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