Residents of the greater Jimboomba area are calling for Telstra to improve mobile service in the area.
Residents in Jimboomba, Flagstone, Jimboomba Woods and Cedar Vale and Cedar Grove are among more than 170 people who have signed a petition on website change.org which calls for the provider to improve service in the region.
Cedar Vale resident Kristy Kite said she signed the petition out of frustration with the level of service locally.
"I upgraded with them in December to a new mobile, we were with Telstra prior to that as well, but for some reasons i don't why whether it was just coincidence or correlated with them doing something with their towers or what not but basically I upgrade and now I no longer get calls, I'll get messages where it will just go to message bank because I've missed calls, and it happens all day, all day everyday, I will go to make a phone call and I can't because I apparently don't have any service," she said.
"It doesn't seem to matter where I am, at home, or in Jimboomba or towards my kids school in Park ridge seems to be the worst but ultimately it is incredibly frustrating."
Ms Kite said she had spoken to Telstra about service problems in the area as they also affected her husband.
"I've been in contact with Telstra a number of times about it and I’ve started screen shotting every time I cant make a call or every time I get text messages and I reply and the person who sent me a text is like I sent that days ago," she said.
"My husband upgraded in January and he is now going through exactly the same thing, and we don't understand why with an upgrade that happens, we've been in and changed our sims which Telstra advised us to do over the phone and it made absolutely no difference at all.”
Jimboomba Times sales representative Donna Collier and Cedar grove resident has also signed the petition stating she has tried everything the company has suggested to improve her mobile service.
“I have tried everything that was proposed by Telstra to increase my coverage including and external aerial, blue tick phone etc. but to no avail,” she said.
“I have noticed a considerable change in the coverage over the last six months in the decrease of coverage problems at my address.
“I find it frustrating that I pay good money for a service that is unable to deliver.”
Regarding their fixed line network a Telstra spokeperson said they are working to improve services.
“Providing a good customer experience is a key driver in our investment decisions which is why we have performed a number of recent upgrades to the infrastructure that serves residents in the Jimboomba and Veresdale exchange serving areas and have further projects planned for the areas in May and July of 2016,” the spokesperson said.
“Telstra continues to look at expanding ADSL coverage and improving capacity on a case by case basis, however we must take into consideration NBN Co’s investment in the area.”
In terms of mobile coverage the spokesperson said there was a myriad of factors that can play a part.
“While many parts of the Cedar Vale, Cedar Grove, Flagstone and Jimboomba Woods and Park Ridge areas have access to our fast 4G and 4GX mobile services, a number of factors influence coverage, including local topography, obstructions such as trees and other structures and building materials, as well as how far you are from the nearest base station,” the spokesperson said.
“Telstra provides advice on how to maximise the coverage already available in your area at the link below. In-building coverage may be improved in some circumstances with the installation of a Telstra Mobile Smart Antenna. This product may be effective in improving in-building coverage for residents in the area.
“Additional information can be found here: http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/coverage-networks/our-coverage/#maximisecoverage.”
Regarding the claim on the petition that there are towers in the area that are not being used the spokeperson also said those towers were old radio transmission towers that are there for a different purpose.
Member for Wright Scott Buchholz said he was aware of the ongoing issues and urged residents to contact him as it gives him evidence he can use when lobbying the communications minister for upgrades in the area.
“With the diversity of the area the single thing that unites the electorate is the lack of communications, and in identifying that through a number of surveys that we do annually, so it’s hard core data that we put together our priorities, we started a campaign about two years ago asking for people that have concerns with their telecommunications to lodge them with our office so that we could then go back with factual real life examples that exists in the electorate,”
“In the Cedar Vale area we have got 26 households logged to date and then 49 out of the Jimboomba area and any additional data that we get goes to adding further weight to the database that we have that is close to 1200 across to the electorate that have touched base with the office and that so valuable to us when we’re making submissions to the ministers office.”
