Grampians region internet users fed up with NBN connectivity issues

Residents and business owners in the Black Range, approximately 10 kilometers south of Stawell, are experiencing a number of unknown connectivity issues while connected to the NBN.

NBN Co Limited is an Australian government-owned corporation tasked to design, build and operate Australia's National Broadband Network as a monopoly wholesale broadband provider.

Black Range resident Keith Lofthouse said when he first connected to the NBN in December 2015 he was "blessed" with years of untroubled and uninterrupted service.

"All that seems to have changed these past 12 months," he said.

"There have been at least five outages in 2020 alone, ranging from four hours to up to sixteen hours last Thursday, February 28, and then again, for a further six hours on the following Monday and again on the Tuesday.

"I choose not to synchronise my phone because that exposes me to all sorts of nuisance pressures to install, update and to improve functions that don't need to change.

"So, I don't receive warnings of planned outages; they just happen, but why the hell don't Telstra, who are supposed to be the masters of communication, send me alerts via email?

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"Curiously, my neighbour up the road, who is about 600 metres away as the crow flies, can't get NBN. They've been told they're too far away."

Mr Lofthouse said it would be nice to get some answers.

Black Range-based electrician David Turner said the connectivity issues were a continued "frustration" for him to run his business.

"When I get onto business programs to start writing accounts for invoices and I can't access it," he said.

"As a small business you try and stay on top of things but without connectivity it makes it hard.

"I have spoken to Telstra about the issues and they have said they didn't know about any planned outages."

Mr Turner said he hadn't received any notification of any outages which made it tough to plan days he would spend doing administration work for his business.

"All I have been offered is extra data on my mobile," he said.

"My mobile doesn't get a strong enough signal to connect a computer to, to use for the internet.

"I can use my Ipad but it doesn't connect up to my printer and the program isn't the same as on computer."

NBN Co confirmed necessary upgrade works were being conducted on the fixed wireless network in the region.

The company adviser there were three periods of activity:

The works are part of ongoing capacity upgrade program and involve upgrading the link that carries services and the installation of a new headframe on the tower.

NBN Co said the towers needed to be powered down in order to perform the upgrades, with works restricted to daylight hours to comply with occupational health and safety constraints, relating to climbing and working around towers to install equipment.

NBN Co seeks to advise retailers of outages two weeks before a planned upgrade and asks phone and internet retailers to pass this information on to their customers.

In addition to this there have been some minor hardware faults in Stawell and Ararat that would have impacted some fixed line customers.

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NBN Co advised residents to visit the website - https://www.nbnco.com.au/support/network-status - and enter their address details to see if there are any planned maintenance work or issues impacting their service.

"We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause and we ask the community for its patience while these important works are carried out," a spokesperson said.

"When we carry out an upgrade, the network may be turned off at intervals throughout the day, which will affect some telephone and internet services of local residents who are connected to the network.

"We will take steps to help ensure that any disruption to service is kept to a minimum while also ensuring the safety of workers."