Telstra will this week begin upgrading the Mount Burr mobile base station to bring upgraded 4G and new 5G services to the community, but the works will require a series of temporary outages or reduction in mobile coverage.

Works was scheduled to begin yesterday (Wednesday) and barring unforeseen circumstances, is expected to be completed by Tuesday.

Coverage is expected to be returned at approximately 4pm each day.

Telstra mobile customers should have received text messages advising of the upcoming outage.

The base station was erected alongside the Mount Burr CFS shed around 25 years ago.

Landline services, NBN internet services and mobile coverage from other providers will not be impacted.

Any calls to Triple Zero from a Telstra mobile when the site is off air will automatically be diverted to any working mobile network in the area for connection to emergency services.

Regional General Manager for Telstra Michael Patterson said his crews need to work during daylight for safety.

“We’ll only be switching off the site when we need to and have it back on as quickly as possible,” he said.

“Where possible we will just be switching off the parts of the tower we are working on, leaving the rest operational.

“While coverage and capacity will decline during this time, we want to keep the amount of time the site is off air to an absolute minimum.

“There’s never a good time to undertake this sort of work but once it is completed, it will mean better mobile services for local residents.

“As a company, Telstra heavily invests in improving regional connectivity.

“Over the past seven years to the end of 2022/23, Telstra invested $11b in our national mobile network, with $4b of this invested in our regional mobile network.”

Telstra has over 11,700 mobile base stations covering more than 2.7 million square kilometres of Australia and provides mobile coverage to 99.6% of the Australian population.