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Telstra’s 3G and 4G services have been hit by network issues – the third time this month the telco’s mobile network has run into service snags.
“3G and 4G Mobile voice and data services - We are aware of an issue impacting some mobile services. We apologise for the inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” Telstra said on its website on 21 May.
The telco took to social media at 9:00AM on 21 May to tell customers it was working to fix an issue impacting some mobile services.
Aussie Outages, a website powered by software called Downdetector, which selects and displays tweets related to network problems, registered a peak of complaints regarding Telstra's network just after 10AM, with over 15,000 reports flooding in via social media channels.
"We are working to resolve an issue impacting some 4G mobile voice and data services nationally which is also causing congestion for 3G services," the spokesperson told ARN at 11:36AM. "We are still investigating the root cause. Calls to 000 will connect over other carriers’ networks where they have mobile coverage."
As at 12:16PM, the Telstra spokesperson said that the company's 4G voice and data traffic volume was improving nationally after it bypassed hardware which had been preventing some customers from accessing the 4G mobile network.
"3G voice and data volumes are also improving. We are very sorry for the interruption to services, either directly to customers or through business and government services," the spokesperson said.
At 2:55PM, the spokesperson confirmed that Telstra had returned its mobile voice and data services to normal levels.
"We will closely monitor network stability and performance and continue supporting our customers to restore their services," the spokesperson said.
Just weeks ago, Telstra found itself working to resolve a partial network outage that hit on 1 May after 4G voice calls in various areas around the country were hit by the service disruption.
The spokesperson said at the time that the issue was caused by technical changes made ahead of upgrades to mobile traffic control equipment in Telstra’s Exhibition Street exchange in Melbourne.
Just days later, on 4 May, Emergency Triple Zero call services and mobile Telstra services in at least four states were hit by intermittent “interruptions” after a cable was damaged by fire -- likely caused by a lightning strike -- in regional NSW.
Telstra said in a statement posted online that a cable break caused by an unknown party between Orange and Bathurst in NSW at 2.05AM on 4 May caused intermittent mobile voice connection interruptions in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
In early February last year, a fire at one of Telstra’s exchanges in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood knocked out some of the company’s network services.
A year earlier, in February 2016, Telstra experienced a nationwide outage when one of its major mobile nodes went down. That outage saw services in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth go down.
The company was hit by further outages in the months following, including issues affecting Victoria and Tasmania in March, and a business services outage leaving Jetstar passengers grounded in July.
The company subsequently said it would spend $250 million on network improvements following the series of outages.
