Telstra crews have reportedly been able to deliver a temporary connectivity solution for customers in Candelo following the recent vandalism of its base station.
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As ACM reported on Monday, significant infrastructure damage, believed to be a deliberate act of vandalism, meant the cell tower was toppled and mobile services impacted.
On Thursday, May 2, Telstra regional general manager Chris Taylor said the telco had now optimised nearby Telstra towers to help offer some overlapping coverage.
"And yesterday, we installed a short-term fix that will provide customers in Candelo with some 4G coverage," he added.
"The temporary coverage will mean customers in town should be able to make and receive calls and texts, however until the mobile site is replaced, some areas might still be patchy, and we expect mobile data to be slow.
"Our team continue to work on replacing the mobile site as quickly as possible, however due to the severity of the damage, it may take at least a month.
"We apologise for the inconvenience and understand how frustrating this is for the community."
Mr Taylor said until the mobile base station was replaced, residents with access to a Wi-Fi signal can activate Wi-Fi calling. This was a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allowed your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls when in range of the modem. It worked during any outage.
Calls to Triple Zero, landlines, mobile coverage from other providers, and NBN and other broadband services should not be impacted.
"We continue to work with police to investigate what happened and encourage anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the area to contact Crime Stoppers," Mr Taylor said.
