General News
14 February, 2026
Mobile phone disruptions ahead
INTERRUPTIONS to Telstra mobile services next week are likely, as the major telco flagged service upgrades in Horsham that require reducing the power of, or even temporarily turning off, some transmitters/receivers over several days.
Telstra mobile customers may have received text notifications about the scheduled works starting Monday.
The upgrades aim to improve 4G and 5G service quality in the town center.
Telstra regional engagement manager Adrienne Holobowski said it was part of their ongoing ‘Business As Usual’ investment with the intention of achieving 95 per cent population coverage with 5G, complementing a 99.7 per cent overall mobile network population coverage.
“We need to continually upgrade our sites as people use their phones more and more – particularly for data, as data continues to be a massive demand on our network,” she said.
“So it is a good thing (but) it's a painful thing in the moment – it's sort of short-term pain for long-term gain.”
She said they were aiming to finish the work with minimal disruption, with the first two days “trying to keep as many people up and running as we can”.
“On Monday and Tuesday … we're not turning the whole site off for the day,” Ms Holobowski said.
“It's sort of in sector by sector ... in thirds.”
She said the work for the following days was different, as, for safety reasons related to electromagnetic energy, they had to turn the whole site off while the specialist crew “integrate that new technology into the network”.
“The site comes back on at the end of each day,” Ms Holobowski said.
“While this is all happening, we have overlapping coverage from neighbouring sites. So the main thing we would expect is that users may experience some drop in performance for data ... but for calls and SMS, we expect that the overlapping coverage will manage that.
“So a little bit different to a single site town where you're turning the whole thing off and everybody's down and out – it's it's a less of an impact.”
Ms Holobowski said the work will be a combination of frequency reallocation and upgrading antenna equipment, and that users would have a “noticeable difference” in network performance afterwards.
Landline services, NBN internet services and mobile coverage from other providers would not be impacted.
Any calls to Triple Zero from a Telstra mobile when the site is off air will automatically connect to another mobile network, if available, to reach emergency services.
Telstra regional general manager Steve Tinker emphasized the importance of meeting the needs of rural customers.
“We know how important mobile connectivity is for Australians, whether you’re in the city or the country,” he said.
“As data use over our mobile network continues to grow, adding extra 4G capacity to our mobile site in the area will help deliver faster downloads, smoother streaming and less congestion for customers.
“The work will also make the site ready for a further upgrade to our even faster 5G in the future.
“While disruption is required while the upgrade is underway, we’ll only be switching off the site when we need to and will have it back online and working better than ever as quickly as possible.”
The site will be switched off during the following periods:
Monday, February 16 to Tuesday, February 17: Telstra mobile customers may experience intermittent coverage.
Wednesday, February 18 to Friday, February 20: Full site outage from 8am to 5pm each day for Telstra mobile customers.
Telstra customers can continue to make calls and send texts during disruptions by enabling Wi-Fi Calling.
Wi-Fi Calling is a free feature on most popular mobile phones and allows calls and texts over a Wi-Fi connection.
Telstra also recommends that business owners consult their bank about connecting EFTPOS terminals to NBN or Wi-Fi to avoid transaction delays.