Telstra is set to upgrade its mobile base station at Wabalba to bring better 4G coverage and new 5G coverage to the area, with work to take place from January 15-25.
There will be some temporary service disruptions or reduction in mobile coverage during this period, with Tesltra customers to receive text messages advising them of the works.
Landline services, NBN internet services and mobile coverage from other providers will not be impacted.
There will be an eight hour full site outage on Tuesday, January 16, and Wednesday, January 17.
Following this it will be a five-day full site outage from January 18-22, followed by partial service disruptions during the day from January 23-25.
Any calls for triple 0 from a Telstra mobile will automatically be diverted to any working mobile network for connection to emergency services.
Telstra Regional general manager Michael Marom said they would only switch off the site when needed
“Where possible we will just be switching off the parts of the tower we are working on, leaving the rest operational,” he said.
“While coverage and capacity will decline during this time we want to keep the amount of time the site is off air to an absolute minimum.
“It is never a good time to undertake this sort of work, but once it is completed, it will be better mobile services for residents.”
For mobile coverage in the interim Telstra encourages residents to activate Wi-Fi calling.
This is a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use the Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls.
Many businesses use the Telstra network for their EFTPOS terminals.
However, Telstra does not operate the EFTPOS network – it is operated by financial institutions.
Many terminals can also be connected using fixed line or Wi-Fi NBN Internet connections.
Retailer should contact their bank for more information.
The rollout of 5G in Wadalba means customers with Telstra 5G mobile devices will be able to enjoy a better mobile experience.
The upgrade will also bring added benefits to customers on the Telstra 4G network, with more capacity, better connectivity and less congestion.