Residents of Port Stephens’ North Shore are at their wit’s end with persistent weak signals and a lack of communication towers, leaving North Arm Cove, Carrington, and Tahlee with poor connectivity. The area’s sole Optus-specific mobile tower at Soldiers Point is inadequate for those on other networks, an issue highlighted by a recent Optus blackout that cut off many residents.
Broadband is similarly unreliable, with fixed wireless and fixed-line services frequently failing, leaving residents with spotty internet. This precarious connectivity situation was spotlighted by a recent NBN outage, which revealed just how dependent the community is on this fragile link to the digital world. The consequences are dire, especially when essential telehealth services are disrupted, jeopardizing community health and safety. The situation calls for urgent infrastructure improvements to ensure reliable communication for all residents.
An Urgent Call for Reinforcement
Residents of Port Stephens’ northern shore are confronting not just daily disruptions but potential emergency hazards due to poor telecommunication services. The situation, as highlighted by IT specialist Doug Kohlhoff, is critical, particularly when outages occur, such as the recent blackout and NBN interruption. The Gan Gan towers, critical to regional communications, fail to provide adequate coverage, leaving many in a connectivity void. As emergencies underscore the network’s unreliability, locals like Kohlhoff are vocally demanding improved infrastructure and network diversity. The goal is clear: to ensure reliable connections, particularly in urgent situations, and to finally overcome the digital isolation endured by this community. There’s a unified call for tangible progress to mend the glaring communication gaps that the Northern Shores have suffered for too long.
