Signal-less By Singleton

Sun Herald

Sunday April 27, 2008

By Allyson Horn

RURAL residents in the Hunter could be forced to pay for expensive aerials and devices just to gain mobile reception after Telstra's CDMA network is shut down tomorrow. Glendonbrook farmer Deborah Howe is one of many residents who won't have reception on their Next G mobiles.

The township, 20 kilometres north-east of Singleton, is in one of the black holes for mobile reception.

Mrs Howe said she was disappointed that there was nothing rural residents could do.

"There isn't anything that's going to work for me or my partner in our house or even around it," she said.

"Our system here isn't going to work better until we spend at least $300 to put an aerial on our roof, and then we've been told that maybe it will work better.

"That's a lot of money to pay for a maybe."

Mrs Howe has to travel eight kilometres down the road to get reception on her Next G mobile.

"People in country areas thought that a mobile was going to be an emergency tool, but now we've realised it's just not possible. It would be nice if country people had the same service as our city cousins but we don't and we won't get it," Ms Howe said.

"If I'm working in the cattle yard and something happens, I've got to go all the way back to the house to call for help, which could be too late.

"Telstra is a multinational corporation and I think they don't care."

Telstra area general manager Phil Lammert urged concerned residents to contact a help line.

Mrs Howe, however, said she had already been through the assistance process with no success.

Mr Lammert said he was "very comfortable we have equivalents of coverage with the Next G network".

"I'm aware of those customers in the region and we're working very hard to rectify any handset issues," he said. "The fundamental thing we've got is we've fitted all our existing towers with Next G, and I'm convinced there is equivalent coverage."

Mrs Howe said there were other problems with the network as well.

"One of the biggest annoyances is dropouts, where you'll make a call and it will ring once and drop out, but you're still charged for it.

"And because there's no reception, the phone is always roaming and searching for a network and the battery goes dead in a couple of hours, which is no help at all.

"I think we were all led to believe that mobiles could help people in rural areas, but they're not at the moment. In time, I can just see places like us becoming more isolated."

NSW Farmers Association president Jock Laurie said: "The association's primary objective now is avoiding any potential situation whereby someone becomes injured in an isolated area on Monday with only a deactivated CDMA mobile phone to call for help."

© 2008 Sun Herald

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