Like most people who try to use a GSM mobile phone at Shoalhaven Heads I have just about had enough. Neither of the providers I have tried (Optus and Southern Phone who use the Telstra network) are able to provide us a service that I can acceptably use at our home - if we stand in one spot on tip-toes we can sometimes get a call to last long enough to yell 'PLEASE CALL ME ON THE LANDLINE!'

Now, I know that there are spots around the village where we can get a reasonable signal (you have to laugh at the number of people you see standing outside their houses talking on the mobile - usually with a finger stuck in their ear!). But, with the high cost of local and STD calls from home phones many people would opt for one of the good mobile plans available to make most of their calls - but many can't as our homes are not in one of the 'good spots'.

Look, we live in the 21st Century and are only 15 minutes drive from a major regional town in NSW and we can't make or receive mobile phone calls in most places here! We have a bloody great mountain beside us that presumably blocks the signal (why not put an unobtrusive tower up there I wonder?) from 'Meroo Meadow' or wherever the service comes from - in fact, the best place for a signal is on the beach as we can get the signal from Gerroa/Gerringong.

I will be investigating myself what steps that we as customers of these huge companies can do to get an acceptable phone service here in the 'Heads, but firstly I'd ask you to vote on the latest poll so that we can get some statistics on the service quality that people are getting.

I'll be more than happy to take this further depending on how many votes we get and what they are!

Andy

Edit: I've just been advised of an online Telstra form that customers can use to give them 'feedback' on their mobile networks. Can I suggest that residents that are also sick of the 'service' take a few minutes and let them know?
Here's the link to the Telstra page: (I'll keep hunting for similar pages on other Telco's sites!) :

http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/networks/feedback.cfm

Seek (or Google) & you shall find... here's the Optus feedback form.