03-07-2025
Jurien Bay residents afraid of what could happen next with frequent Telstra outages
Michael Cockburn found himself unable to call emergency services when a neighbour's shed burst into flames in May.
He said the blaze had first been extinguished by firefighters earlier in the evening, but after midnight his wife saw it had reignited.
"She screamed out to me that the shed was on fire again. As I've gone out the backyard, there was just a red glow," Mr Cockburn said.
Mr Cockburn said he tried to call triple-0 four times in vain.
"[The call] would go through to the call centre and after about five or six seconds it would just drop out."
He said he had the same issues when trying to make a call to a friend who "made the assumption" the structure had reignited.
Firefighters arrived about an hour later.
Mr Cockburn said he and the elderly property owner used hoses to try to keep the flames from spreading to a nearby shed which held batteries and fuel.
"There was a good chance that would have exploded," he said.
Firefighters eventually stopped the blaze but the shed was destroyed and there was significant damage to his neighbour's house.
Mr Cockburn said the poor mobile coverage caused a dangerous delay and the service was still unacceptable weeks later.
He is one of many residents of Jurien Bay, about 200 kilometres north of Perth, who say phone services are so unreliable they could be life threatening.
Telstra initially told the ABC there was only one recent fault, in June, but after more questions they said further investigations found an "intermittent fault" which "reduced mobile performance for some customers".
"We're sorry for the stress this has caused. It's a complex fault and we're working with our software vendor and technicians to identify the root cause of the issue as a matter of urgency," a spokesperson said.
Dandaragan shire president Tony O'Gorman said coverage issues had been happening for about three months.
"It's almost impossible to make a phone call in and around Jurien Bay without the phone dropping out," he said.
The council had been lobbying Telstra on behalf of residents, he added.
"But they're paying as much attention to us [the council] as they do any other citizen, which is just about zero."
Mr O'Gorman encouraged locals to lodge a complaint with Telstra and escalate it with the telecommunications ombudsman.
Shire of Dandaragan emergency services coordinator Will Miller said every minute in an emergency mattered, and there had been multiple incidents in which telco issues had occurred.
"As soon as you've got life and property involved, it's amazing how much we do rely on our telephone networks these days," Mr Miller said.
He said response teams and volunteers were encouraged to sign up with multiple telco providers in the hopes at least one would provide a signal in an emergency.
Mr Miller said the backup plan added extra costs but was a good placeholder until there was a long-term fix.
"We could be waiting for solutions for quite some time," he said.
Jurien Bay's Community Resource Centre recorded at least 25 people who had been affected by unreliable mobile coverage.
"But we know through social media there's lots more people affected by it," manager Sue Campbell said.
The lack of coverage affected daily life, she said, with many government and banking services using two-factor authentication which required a phone call or text to work.
Ms Campbell said in one situation a client had applied for an income support payment but could not do the necessary phone interview.
"The day of the interview he was sitting waiting for the call and it never arrived," she said.
The same issue happened again twice, leaving the client without an income for about six weeks, Ms Campbell said.
"It's very distressing for them. It badly affects their mental health," she said.
Ms Campbell said the centre's staff were planning on lobbying local MP Shane Love over the issue and also encouraged people to lodge a complaint with the telecommunications ombudsman.
