I’m going to start this off to say this is not a bitch at Telstra. Yeah, I’m frustrated with them, but really, in the scheme of things, there are far bigger worries in the world to deal with. But what the heck, this is my blog, so I’m going to have a bit of a rant.

For a good part of my working day, I’m located close to Federation Square in Melbourne. For those of you who don’t know what Fed(eration) Square is or looks like, think of Pablo Picasso eating laxative filled building materials, then doing a massive spray poo across a city block. I must admit, I like the design, but then again, I’m no scatologist. I digress.

Now the problem for me is, despite my phone saying I have full service, I get no 3G at least 90% of the time, and calls and SMS’s come through about half of the time. I know I’m missing these, because as soon as I go to Richmond, I get a flurry of missed calls or messages, and suddenly 3G works. Obviously there is something wrong.

Telstra have even admitted as much, saying they do have issues in the Melbourne CBD, and they are currently being worked on, and will be resolved in about three months…, that was six months ago.

This isn’t just an issue with there being a lot of people trying to use the network at the same time either. The issue is the same at 3am on a weekday, as it is at peak hour of any day. The problem needs to be fixed. I’m not talking about getting huge amounts of data either, I’ve tried to get files of less than 50kb, but no luck, I can’t even get 1kb/sec of service.

Yes, I know I could go to another carrier, and also move to another place where there is coverage, but I really feel like Telstra is letting the public of Melbourne down. Why have a great reception, when you can’t actually receive anything?

Telstra, I’m not asking for much. I’m not expecting this to be fixed over night. All I ask is you actually do some work in this area, so there is capacity for those trying to use your service, that we pay for. You’ve admitted to a problem, you say that problem should be resolved by now, but it’s not, and it’s been going on for too long. Please, really please, pretty please even, can you just get your network working where a majority of people want to use it.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the E coverage around Docklands.