Mar 7th – post-mortem
Terry Ryan and others are putting together this list of Optus enquiries and cases made by many over the last month. If you can add your own calls, issues or cases raised that would be helpful. To do so go to the Contact page and submit an email or attachment with your details in a similar format to below. We’ll keep you updated on when it is submitted to authorities and any replies.
The support provided was clearly under par and some response is warranted.
Thank you.
Feb 4th – 7am update
The network was fixed around Feb 3 about 11am according to some locals.
There were at least three senior managers ‘on the case’ yesterday and one or more of them may have had an impact.
Disappointingly there has been no general broadcast messages (updates or apologies) from Optus to all their users in the region despite admitting to the large impact on a case by case basis.
No doubt there will be a post mortem and debate about it.
If you are still experiencing problems try resetting your network settings on your device(s). On an iPhone this is found under General settings, Reset, Rest Network Settings.
If this still fails and you can get a message out, please write to cwsc@gundaroo.org and let us know.
[There is a report from a Braidwood Optus user that these troubles are caused by upgrades to towers to 5G and locals in Braidwood have just been told their signal will be down for two weeks – sorry!]
Feb 3rd – 7am update
One local resident reports that they have been told ‘the problem’ will be fixed by Feb 4.
At least one Gundaroo resident says he goes to the Sutton Bakery to get a signal. Its not clear if that means the village of Sutton is ok and the Sherony Park Tower supports mostly the west of Sutton or the Bakery has its own stronger wifi setup.
Several more Optus users have switched to (or back to) Telstra and some to Yless4U.
Feb 2
Some signals seemed slightly stronger but dropouts continue. Still no broadcast messages from Optus to all users in the Sutton/Gundaroo area – they continue to treat complaints on a case by case basis.
FEB 1 11pm
Since January 19 the Optus network in Gundaroo has been overloaded and providing poor service signals.
This, according to Optus tech support, is because the tower near Sutton called the Sherony Park Tower was under maintenance. All Sutton users, about 1000, on that tower automatically switched across to the Gundaroo tower, known as the McLeod’s Creek Tower.
An Optus technician was shocked recently to discover that the Gundaroo tower which normally copes with 200 sessions had about 1200 running on it.
It’s no wonder this congestion has impacted so many locals who use Optus.
The Sherony Park Tower was scheduled to be back up on 31-Jan at 6am, but alas that appears to not be the case and as at 11pm on 1 Feb the word from Optus is “the team is still working on it and we’ll get back to you”.
FYI- if you complain (or stupidly Optius ask you to go online and talk to them by their messaging app!) you may end up with a CASE ID however these seem only linked to your personal phone. The problem then is you are treated as an isolated case and not linked to any MAJOR event.
Also there have been recompense offerings made by Optus to offset any monthly fees since most of January has been little or no service during daylight hours. This does a bit but not a lot to approximately 70-100 locals who work or run local businesses from their home in the region.
Unfortunately its a case of waiting a bit longer, and while Optus management have now been told of the angst in the region towards them and the frustration it is causing its unclear if this is not getting through. There are some who have switched providers already.
This is a shame as it seems the Gundaroo Optus tower has been fast and reliable for about 5 years and this current impact seems to be one rare event.
More updates to come.