Telstra mobile phones out of action
UPDATE: Frustrated Babinda and Miriwinni residents say they have no mobile telephone reception, but Malanda residents have had their service restored.
Stormy weather damaged two Telstra mobile telephone towers - one at Malanda and the other at Graham Range near Babinda - leaving residents without mobile phone service for two days.
An angry Babinda resident told The Cairns Post he rang Telstra several times on Monday morning, only to be dealt with by complaints staff in the Philippines who said there was no problem with the Graham Range tower.
Telstra's acting general manager Amanda Colley yesterday said she received her first internal report about the problems yesterday morning, saying a lightning strike had damaged the Malanda base station and an antennae fault had caused an outage at the Graham Range tower.
Technicians were working on the Tableland tower and coverage was restored in the Malanda region today.
But because of rainy conditions in the Babinda region, it was too dangerous for them to deal with the coastal tower's problems.
"All I can do it recommend people use their landlines," she said.
"We don't know yet how long this will last."
She said people would also be experiencing problems with wireless internet services.
Malanda residents had the option to switch from NextG to the 2G service on their mobiles because the lightning damage had not caused a total outage.
Ms Colley said most people would have their phones on an auto setting where 2G overrides NextG if there is a problem, but advised people to ring 125 111 if they did not know how to check.
Malanda residents yesterday reported problems right across town, echoing people from Babinda in saying they had patchy service or no service at all.
They said couriers were among the people complaining about disruptions.
A Babinda resident, who did not want to be named, said his family had the landline service disconnected last week because everyone used mobile telephones.
"It's been very quiet around here," he said.
Share this article
Telstra outage cuts off town
A FED-UP Miriwinni businesswoman who lost a $10,000 real estate commission is among hundreds of residents south of Cairns facing a fourth day without mobile phone reception or wireless internet
services.
Rudd's Insulation Army rebates rejected
A CAIRNS insulation installer which has been advertising rebates under the Home Insulation Program has had its registration rejected by the Federal Government.
$25m CEC project kickstarts Cairns
THE Far North's largest construction company, the CEC Group, is on the road to recovery with a $25 million land sale and building contract south of Cairns.
Ideas pop up to revitalise Cairns city
POP-up stores may be the answer to filling the high number of empty shops in Cairns' central business
district.
World-class yachtsman reveals Cairns link
WORLD-renowned yachtsman and businessman Tony Mowbray, who is the first speaker in the 2010 series of The Cairns Post-sponsored Cairns Chamber of Commerce lunches next week, has early links to Cairns.
