An international consultant who moved from Melbourne after being convinced he had wireless for his Long Beach office has been shut out in the shire’s mobile meltdown.
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A frustrated Terry Murphy said he relocated in July after Batemans Bay’s Telstra office assured him of a reliable network, yet the system has tanked in the tourist surge.
Mr Murphy said he was one of a handful of South-East Asian-based specialists for a leading international corporate travel agency, responsible for data integrity, including ticketing.
“There are only three of us for the South-East Asian region, for Australia, New Zealand and right through India,” he said.
“That was the number one thing with buying a home, I needed internet.
“I saw Telstra and asked what the wireless was like. They brought up the map and said, ‘you will have no problems, the whole of Batemans Bay is covered in wireless’.”
Yet in early December, with university and older students on holiday, he was regularly shut out.
“I was on the phone arguing bitterly with Telstra in December because I was losing the system every day and it was very frustrating,” he said.
“I was on the phone for days. They checked my network and, after two weeks, they finally said it was congestion.”
The real crunch came in the New Year.
“I could not get on,” he said.
“I spent hours trying to sign on. I could not get even an internet page to come up. We just turned the computer off. I spoke to my boss in New Zealand and said, ‘I just can’t work, there is nothing I can do’.
“The frustration levels have gone right up, because I can’t deliver on my job.
“I have to work and I love my job and it is very frustrating because I was told it would work.”
An article in Friday’s Bay Post/Moruya Examiner informed Mr Murphy he was not alone in his dilemma and he now wants action for everyone affected.
“It is just wrong that we cannot work just because of the tourism time,” he said. “This is not just me affected, it is all the businesses in town. How can businesses work if they deal on the internet?
“I want it fixed. I was promised when I moved here.”
Mr Murphy said he was also told in May that the 4G network would be available in Batemans Bay by the end of 2012, but this was denied last month.
“I visited them in December and at first they denied it, but then a staff member came out and said, ‘yes, earlier in the year they had said November/December, but now there is no time’.”
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