True Telstra Tales

Coral Beebe comes on the line with
a cautionary message ...

Our first Telecommunications system was installed in 1977. This was a radiotelephone, probably upgraded to (VHF Radio). It was quite satisfactory when it was first installed.
It had a huge aerial but it was just an ordinary telephone. We were on the Royal Flying Doctor system before then - you can imagine what it was like rushing in and taking telegrams. That was our only form of communication until the telephone came in and then we thought we were very modern. It saved us having to drive all the way into Elliott to make a business call if we had to make it urgently. So, things have changed.
In October last year Telstra thought they would upgrade it to the new satellite technology. A US0 Satellite (Scientific-Altanta) I think they called it.
With this modern technology, satellites going over every two minutes, they advised us that the new system would be the best way to go. We would be able to get onto the Internet and then we would have all the services you have in town.
We saw this as a great opportunity, I suppose, buying and selling cattle, that you could actually bring it up on a screen. So, from a business point of view, living in the bush it was really excellent. You could have a digital camera and take your photographs, put it through the Internet to the agents and then they could put it up for selling. We could buy and sell, make bids, accept bids, all in time using the Internet. Really, it opens a huge box of opportunities, all this wonderful technology and of course you can have online banking too.
There were problems with the service for a while. First, it just went off the air for days and they couldn't do anything about it. They'd taken away our old telephone services so we had no back up service. The Flying Doctor Services doesn't have the full radio connection now, unless it's urgent.
We nearly lost out on a cattle deal. That was when we got really worried. We were unaware that they were going to sell our cattle and they wanted my husband to sign a contract. They tried to send it by fax and it wouldn't come through.
When we finally came back on air, things weren't right. We had problem with voice, echoes, the fax wouldn't work properly, bad thunder and rainstorms would put it out longer than it should have. All those things that made it really unreliable.
So, they flew down another back up system, a tiny little satellite telephone system. The new dish was set up on the roof while out in the paddock we've still got this other massive dish with 24 solar panels and batteries. This little telephone service was much better.
Our biggest problem with Telstra was that the departments weren't coming together and working out the problems. One department knew about one problem and another department about another, but between them they couldn't do anything about it.
The faults department was in Brisbane and they would have to contact the different departments to get the results. A lot of people, when the phone was off the air didn't know whom to ring. There was a huge breakdown in communications.
In Alice Springs and Adelaide I met two good Telstra employees and they moved me to top priority, after they discovered that we nearly lost a huge cattle sale. Later I had a meeting with them on the ground at Ucharonidge. After that things moved very quickly.
The senior management of Telstra had not put all the departments together to notify them how the new system should work. They didn't sit down with the departments to work it through. It's a very sophisticated program. It goes from point A up to the satellite (point B) down to the earth station (Point C). From there it goes through the optic fibre to the Alice Springs exchange. Then it is distributed to where the calls are made.
It's excellent now, but they had to get the Alice Springs exchange upgraded. They had this modern technology but certain key areas weren't being upgraded fast enough to cope with what they were putting in the bush.
I feel that the head management of Telstra is not looking after the people on the ground to give them the support they need for this new technology.
If Telstra is going to remove ten thousand people, that's where they need to remove the dead wood, upper managment in the big cities, not on the ground.
We're losing all the good Telstra employees.
We are very happy with the service now and we are hoping we can get through without too many breakdowns. Its only if someone goes and cuts the optic fibre or lightning strikes.
We're back on the big dish and it's doing all the work. They're ironing out all their problems but unfortunately I was the guinea pig.