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In the remote Central Australian community of Ampilatwatja, more frequent cellphone and internet disruptions have left people unable to call the local health facility or police in emergencies.
Ampilatwatja, 350 kilometers northeast of Alice Springs, is one of the dozens of villages in the area experiencing widespread telecommunication disruptions that could take weeks to rectify.
Ampilatwatja has been without a fixed-line and mobile services six times in the past nine months due to several factors, including overcast weather and hardware issues.
According to Bruce Slonim, a locum physician at the Ampilatwatja Health Centre, the community was “desperate” for a long-term solution and better communication from Telstra.
Speaking from the clinic’s satellite phone due to an outage that had been ongoing for five days, Slonim said the outages happen so frequently that it feels ‘hopeless.’
Slonim added that his medical staff and colleagues were on pins and needles every time the connection went down, fearing a potentially catastrophic event.
He said, “It is an extremely anxious time for everybody locally, not simply us at the clinic. No one can contact each other, and it is very difficult.”
‘Extremely frustrated’
The doctor, who has worked at Ampilatwatja intermittently for 11 years, believes someone could die anytime soon due to a telecom failure.
“We’ve been lucky so far, we haven’t lost anyone, but there have been a few close calls.”
Slonim said a guy had a heart attack at a forest camp about a 10-minute drive from the clinic during the most recent outage. However, because no one could call the clinic for an ambulance, it took the man almost an hour to get expert medical care
A separate incidence of domestic violence spilled onto the streets over the weekend, leaving residents fearful for their lives. Slonim said it took hours for police to respond after a man was seen driving wildly around the streets and “trying to run over” civilians.
According to Slonim, the community had a tough time reporting the problems to Telstra as the process was lengthy and beset by practical concerns, leaving the community feeling abandoned by the telecom.
Slonim claimed they have never had any feedback from Telstra despite all their phone calls and emails.
“Nobody says, ‘Look, this was the problem, and this is what we’ve done, and this is the long-term solution, and these are our future plans.”
He described the community as “extremely frustrated” and pleaded for Telstra to give a comprehensive strategy to address the issue.
‘Outages caused by many factors’
Telstra said in a statement that services were restored to the community on Monday afternoon following a transmission line hardware issue.
Telstra’s NT regional general manager, Nick Danks, said the telco was mindful of providing access in rural areas. It always attempted to resolve issues as swiftly as possible.
Danks said, “Outages can be caused by many factors and occur in a variety of locations.”
Danks claimed that the part that needed replacing was not in Ampilatwatja and was more than 70km away near Sandover at one of our repeater sites.
“Unfortunately, restoration of services can be delayed by distance and also by bad weather, with roads becoming inaccessible and limited options to access communities by air,” he said.
Danks also said that Telstra would visit Ampilatwatja next month to “speak to the community about telecommunications” and would credit affected customers’ accounts.
According to Danks, a substantial upgrade would take place in the Ampilatwatja area, which would increase the performance and dependability of mobile connectivity.
He said, “As part of a $1.48 million co-investment [in the] Regional Connectivity Program project between Telstra and the Commonwealth government, the mobile base station, and transmission network to the area will be upgraded.”
Danks said Telstra signed the contract in late-2021, and planning and design were underway.
Not the only time
In 2020, The Guardian reported Aboriginal people living on islands off the coast of the Northern Territory were left “sick, angry, hungry, and forgotten” after a telecom outage left them with no help from emergency services.
According to the report, the Anindilyakwa Land Council condemned Telstra, the government, and the police as “manifestly inadequate,” according to the report.
The land council said Aboriginal people were being treated “as second-class citizens” by the NT government’s apparent lack of response.
In the same report, The Guardian mentioned Galiwinku or Elcho Island having two significant blackouts in January 2020, each lasting several days, preventing people from purchasing food or gasoline.
Nine isolated villages in Central Australia also had protracted power disruptions, leaving residents without food or energy.
In another report by The Guardian, telecom problems described as a ‘communication blackhole’ hampered flood rescue and recovery efforts in the New South Wales Northern Rivers region during the flooding that engulfed the area in March 2022.
The report said payments by credit card were also not accepted, and most companies only accept cash. Tellers also manually recorded customers’ bank account information and limited cash withdrawals to $500.
According to the report, the communication issues disabled families from staying in contact with relatives who had evacuated, accessing news about road closures, or contacting insurance companies.
Likewise, Commsroom has reported a significant communications outage that has struck Tasmania, disrupting internet and phone services, after a cable that connects the island state to mainland Australia was severed.
The outages have impacted ADSL and NBN internet services, as well as several free-to-air television and radio stations and mobile data services.
Electricity distributor TasNetworks claimed the challenges were due to a “major statewide internet outage” caused by “upstream provider issues.”
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
