Friday, February 7, 2025

YP residents crying out for connection

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Rachel Hagan, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Locals say existing communications coverage problems across Yorke Peninsula have been exacerbated by the influx of tourists to the region’s busy beachside towns.

Edithburgh. Peter Bartram said he would be ripping his hair out, if he had any, over the issues he has faced in the last few weeks with fixed-line internet and mobile service. Photo: Yorke Peninsula Country Times

In October, Telstra’s 3G coverage was turned off across Australia, leaving many YP residents unable to rely on their phones and stuck on roaming.

Now in the busy holiday season, residents who live in tourist hotspots have said they were barely able to use their mobiles and home internet between Christmas and early January.

Port Vincent Progress Association president Pam Hickman said she did not have internet coverage for days at one stage, and often could not even use her phone in the main parts of town.

“It’s definitely worse at this time of year, but there are other times during the year when it’s not good either,” Ms Hickman said.

“Most of the local residents feel frustrated and let down because we’re paying the same amount of money as what people are paying in the city, but have half the service or no service at all.”

Across the peninsula, Port Victoria resident Greg Twelftree said he had noticed the impact of the tourism season on their services.

“There were times where it was hard just sending emails, and there weren’t thousands of people here — there were lots, but nowhere near as busy as Port Vincent,” Mr Twelftree said.

“But I reckon it was the busiest I’ve ever known it from Christmas to New Year, the hotel was buzzing and the caravan park was full.”

At Edithburgh, local Peter Bartram said this was also the busiest tourist season he had ever seen in the town and he would be ripping his hair out, if he had any, over the issues he has faced in the past few weeks with coverage.

Mr Bartram said the impact of the holiday season has affected his local bowls club, and caused trouble for social functions, especially the club’s cash register which relied on the internet.

At one point of desperation, Mr Bartram said he performed a speed test on the internet and the download speed was only at 0.1 megabits per second.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reported in December 2024, that 88 per cent of NBN fixed-line services had achieved at least 90 per cent of their plan speed, and 1.3 per cent had reached less than half the plan speed.

For NBN very high speed services in Australia, the average download speed was 863.6 Mbps.

Mr Bartram said he was aware many businesses had issues with internet connections for EFTPOS and had to turn away customers in their peak season.

Another Edithburgh resident, Keryn Dawes said, to improve his phone reception, he had to fork out about $1500 to buy a Telstra network coverage extension device to maximise mobile signal in low coverage areas.

“It’s improved my phone reception, but it hasn’t improved my internet,” Mr Dawes said.

YP Country Times journalists have had similar issues with phone and internet coverage in the past few weeks while working on southern YP. 

Yorke Peninsula Country Times 21 January 2025

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 21 January 2025.


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