It looks like it’s third time unlucky for Telstra with customers reporting yet another outage that has left them with a connection to the network and unable to make a receive calls and messages.
It is the third outage since February 9 and the second since last week.
Once again customers took to Twitter seeking an explanation from Telstra and to express their anger and disappointment.
Several Tech Guide readers also got in touch with us to inform us of the latest problem with the Telstra network.
Telstra released a statement to explain today’s outage and put it down to a “card failure in a media gateway in Victoria which meant certain calls could not get through”.
But this was little comfort for Telstra customers who were still not reconnected at late as 5pm today.
One of our readers, Tony, said in a message: “Looks like another Telstra outage. Calls won’t go through. Telstra shop in George street don’t know when it will be fixed. Think I had better have a backup service provider. It’s quite sad for Telstra which portrayed itself as the reliable network and now they have shot themselves in the foot several times. Now, you just take a punt with any provider.”
Yay @Telstra mobile is working again in Brisbane… after close to 5 hours outage #TelstraOutage
— Adam O’Callaghan (@adamocal) March 22, 2016
Every time I see the #TelstraOutage hashtag I’m reading it as Outrage
— Reezy Miller (@Trixie_Boo) March 22, 2016
#TelstraOutage What the hell? AGAIN.
— Geoff Field (@GeoffField) March 22, 2016
Telstra.. the network that works in less places.. #TelstraOutage
— Smallzy (@Smallzy) March 22, 2016
Vodafone saw the latest Telstra woes as an opportunity to lure customers to its network.
In the midst of the mayhem, Vodafone announced it would offer a free month to any new customers switching from another network and porting their existing number between March 23 and 5pm on March 29, 2016.
“We know ‘free data’ days are all the rage right now, which is why Vodafone offers two months of unlimited data to post-paid voice customers when they join or upgrade,” Vodafone director of sales Ben McIntosh said.
#TelstraOutage was still the number two trending topic on Twitter in the evening of this third outage – hours after the company said the problems had been resolved.