By Andrew Williams

Copyright abc

Locals in Western Australia’s remote south-east say they are dumbfounded by Telstra’s decision to schedule work on a town’s only mobile tower during one of the region’s busiest weeks of the year.

The telco has switched off its mobile tower in Hopetoun, about 550 kilometres south-east of Perth, for seven days to perform upgrades to the 4G service and to prepare for 5G.

But the work comes in the middle of the Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show, a two-week showcase of the region’s biodiversity that attracts thousands of visitors each year.

Cafe owner Simon Flick says he has not had coverage since last Friday.

He said the outage had also rendered Hopetoun’s 24-hour fuel station unusable and visitors had been unable to contact loved ones.

Telstra, Mr Flick said, failed to provide him any advance warning about the service disruption.

“About half the town has received a message and the other half haven’t, which is crazy,” he said.

Why during wildflower season?

Port Hotel owner Shane Lacey said he was notified about the outage the day before it started.

“I received two texts the night before … the next morning it was SOS calls only,” he said.

Mr Lacey said he had to turn customers away during one of the busiest weekends of the year.

“We are [usually] 85 per cent card and only 15 per cent cash,” he said.

“We [could] only do cash, so it’s impacted our business greatly.”

Mr Lacey wanted to know why the maintenance could not have been scheduled for another time.

“I’d like to know when the shire found out about it and why they didn’t pull their weight to change the dates,” he said.

The Shire of Ravensthorpe declined to comment on when it was notified of the maintenance by Telstra or whether it had tried to shift the maintenance period away from the event.

‘Never a good time’

Telstra’s WA regional general manager Boyd Brown said the company had notified the community via text and social media.

“Telstra mobile customers connected to the Hopetoun tower received texts advising of upcoming work from September 8,” he said.

“We advised the local shire, MPs, emergency services and other stakeholders ahead of the works.

“There’s never a good time to undertake this sort of work, but once complete it will mean much better mobile services for the local community.”

A Telstra spokesperson said impacted businesses should contact the company.

“Regarding compensation, this is something we consider on a case-by-case basis and customers can always call us to discuss their individual situation,” they said.

The maintenance is set to be completed by September 18.