Restoration of mobile service in the remote community of Wadeye has been delayed — again — after a technician arrived on-site with a faulty part, meaning the outage is now due to stretch into at least its sixth day.
In a statement, Telstra said technicians aimed to return to Wadeye "later this week" to undertake repairs, but couldn't confirm an exact date as to when.
It is the second time in less than two weeks that Wadeye residents have been left without mobile service as the community battles an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Several residents have told the ABC the outage has left locals unable to use their Basics Cards to buy essentials like groceries and fuel.
One woman said the situation had grown so dire that "the people of Wadeye have been trying to sell art to us for as little as $10 to $20 just so they can go get something to eat".
"Telstra is a huge organisation with plenty of resources — they could have chartered a plane last week and have this fixed," she said.
Another resident said the community's main shop, the Murrinhpatha Nimmipa Store, had been running an "IOU" system for some people during the outage to stop people from going hungry.
"We've encouraged people not to carry cash or share cigarettes and now they can't get anything because they don't have any cash," she said, adding queues outside the shop had been "huge".
Adding to concerns, she said, was the fact shoppers have not been able to sign in using the QR code check-in app or contact the local health clinic.
"It's negligent," she said.
"You can't get a hold of the police or the clinic, so if you're sick then you have to rely on somebody checking on you and taking you to the clinic."
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said "most locals are living day to day".
Telstra due to fix the issue this morning
Telstra NT regional general manager Nic Danks said the outage had been caused by a "transmission issue" at the Wadeye exchange on Thursday afternoon, which had impacted Telstra's 3G and 4G mobile services.
Landline phones, payphones and NBN internet services had not been affected, he said.
"To restore services we need to replace a specialist part which has been ordered," Mr Danks said.
"Telstra apologises for any inconvenience to the community during this time."
On Sunday night, a Telstra spokesman said a technician was due to arrive on-site by about 10am on Monday to restore mobile services.
However, repairs were delayed — again — after the new part the technician took to the site today turned out to be faulty.
The spokesman said Telstra aimed to return to Wadeye "later this week" to undertake repairs.
"We again apologise to impacted local residents," he said.
Mr Danks said the earlier outage in Wadeye that began on January 30 had been caused by a loss of mains power to the exchange and was unrelated to the current transmission issue.
He said Telstra encouraged local stores to have backup connectivity options, such as NBN satellite service or EFTPOS connection via a landline, and residents with access to a wi-fi signal should activate wi-fi calling on their mobiles.
"Telstra does not operate the EFTPOS network, it is operated by financial institutions," Mr Danks said.
"Most EFTPOS machines have the capability to connect via fixed line, wi-fi or mobile services."
In December, residents in another Top End community went five days without internet, compromising their access to food, healthcare and emergency services.
