Telstra's Termeil coverage issues

He lives on the mountain above Termeil, and has not been able to get acceptable mobile phone coverage for close to four months.

His treatment, putting aside the coverage issues for a moment, has also been appalling.

Weeks and weeks of promises from Telstra which led to nothing saw him come to the Milton Ulladulla Times for help, while also contacting Federal Member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips for assistance.

Mr Miller has no landline and needs acceptable mobile coverage for work, safety and social interaction reasons.

He has been contacting Telstra for several months and on Tuesday, he finally got direct contact from Telstra.

He was told the outage is due to a breakdown in Telstra infrastructure at the trig station on Boyne Mountain, about 2km north of his home - see full response from Telstra below.

Mr Miller, while happy someone from Telstra finally made contact, feels the matter is far from solved.

"He [the Telstra representative] provided no timeline for inspection of the tower/repairs. He said that other matters had distracted him since 3pm yesterday [Tuesday]," Mr Miller said.

"It sounds like we are in a queue, waiting until Telstra feel like doing something. I've been waiting almost three months now, and now on day eight, we still have no service in Termeil."

Mr Miller's treatment is just not good enough.

He has had months of waiting on the line, being disconnected and told someone will ring him back which they never do.

Commitments to contact him were never followed up

Everything was fine with his reception for many years but three months ago, he started to get drops-outs - continually.

Texts won't send or he does not get texts until the next day.

He just can't contact people - as the Times found out when we tried to call him.

"This includes calling triple zero calls and I live on my own," he said explaining how his phone issues could place him at risk.

He said Telstra has not done anything.

"It's totally unprofessional and shameful," he added

Mr Miller feels they just don't care about general members of the public.

"For the last eight days, anyone with a Telstra phone in Termeil has not been able to make or receive a call. I know this because I have spoken with friends down on the Termeil flats who are with Telstra," he said.

The Telstra outage site acknowledges there is an issue but has not given an indication of when the fault will be fixed.

Mr Miller said people with other service providers are not having the same issues.

"I don't just want my services renewed, I want my neighbours - my community down there - to have their services renewed as well," he said.

The time he has spent lobbying to get his phone issues fixed takes him away from his business.

He relies on his phone for social engagement.

If he has to, his protest will be taken to Canberra and he will demand to see Federal Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher, if his acute and chronic issues are not resolved.

He was directly impacted by the bushfire crisis

"That was an uncontrollable situation but I managed to to save my house and I have been rebuild my infrastructure," he said

"Now this problem with Telstra brings a feeling of uncontrollability.

"I feel angry and I feel impotent to be able to do anything."

He went to Mrs Phillips for help and on Saturday she went down to see him.

"I was very impressed with that level of responsiveness - particularly compared to Telstra," he said

Mrs Phillips and a staff member spent 90 minutes with Mr Miller going through all the details.

"I have been disappointed with Telstra's response to Mr Miller's concerns, as well as their lack of communication with him. It is simply not good enough and I have made this clear to Telstra," Mrs Phillips said.

"I have requested Telstra undertake a reassessment of the issues Mr Miller has raised and expressed this should be done as soon as possible.

"I will be keeping Mr Miller informed of the outcomes of this investigation and have requested that Telstra also contact him as a matter of urgency to discuss it.

"However, this again highlights the ongoing issues of mobile black spots along the South Coast.

"As we saw in the bushfires, mobile phone coverage is a serious problem and I want to see the government start to take this more seriously. I will continue pursuing these issues vigorously."

Telstra's Regional General Manager for NSW, Chris Taylor, is looking into the matter for Mr Miller.

"Telstra has two mobile base stations that supply mobile coverage to the Termeil area," Mr Taylor said.

"Unfortunately in recent months there has been an intermittent power issue with our site located near Boyne Trig, resulting in a decline or loss of mobile services for residents during these times.

"Landline or fixed line internet services have not been impacted.

"Telstra technicians will soon be undertaking the replacement of some technical equipment and the backup batteries which we expect to resolve this issue.

"Telstra apologises to impacted residents and we have spoken to Mr Miller this week to update him.

"We will be working hard to restore reliable mobile coverage to Termeil as quickly as possible.

"In the interim, Telstra encourages impacted residents to use WIFI calling, a free setting on most popular mobile phones that enables the making and receiving of mobile calls when in range of a WIFI signal."

The Times will keep an eye on the situation and hope Mr Miller finally gets the mobile coverage he and other deserves.