General News
27 July, 2023
Plan to upgrade Halls Gap base station
"We need need a strong, reliable connection," said Kookaburra Hotel owner Carlee Vokes.
There will be no mobile network coverage in Halls Gap during August; however, the silver lining for the popular tourist destination is that once the service is turned back on, it will be 5G.
Telstra announced the upgrade as part of its regional 5G rollout, aimed at improving the mobile experience in the township.
Kookaburra Hotel owner Carlee Vokes is cautiously excited by the news.
"The upgrade to 5G will be very beneficial to my business, and Halls Gap, but I will believe it when I see it," she said.
"We need need a strong, reliable connection."
Halls Gap's mobile service and Internet connection can grind to a standstill during peak periods, resulting in lost business and a poor customer experience.
"Easter, summer, long weekends, the Moyston Pitchfest - basically any time when a jump in people come to Halls Gap, we lose connection," she said.
"That's why many businesses can't offer free Wifi; we can't handle the extra users; otherwise, our point-of-sale drops out, our EFTPOS and our online booking system stop working.
"Only Telstra and Optus work in Halls Gap, which visitors need to know better. It's super dangerous because you can have a group of hikers with a Vodafone connection come to Halls Gap and have zero reception."
Steve Tinker, Telstra's regional general manager there is never a good time to turn off service.
"However the service disruption is required to perform the significant work required to provide the new technology, speed and capacity to Halls Gap," he said.
Landline services, NBN internet services and mobile coverage from other providers will not be impacted.
Telstra will undertake the upgrades from Monday, July 31, 2023. There will be no mobile network coverage from Halls Gap on Tuesday, August 1, for eight hours.
From Wednesday, August 2, to Thursday, August 3, there will be no mobile network coverage.
On Friday, August 4, to Saturday, August 5, there will be temporary interruptions during the day as we conduct network testing and integration to complete the work.
Telstra recently switched on a new mobile base station on the corner of Ararat - Halls Gap Rd and Grampians Rd, providing coverage to some parts of Halls Gap.
Any calls to Triple Zero from a Telstra mobile will automatically be diverted to a working mobile network.