Australian customers are starting to question Telstra's network capability after experiencing poor 3G network performance mainly in the south-west. The telecommunications supplier Telstra confirmed that its network is indeed congested at the central business district in Melbourne.

Customers, who raised their concerns on the Australian broadband forum Whirlpool, also encountered call dropouts and failure to make calls at certain times of the day.

Mike Wright, Executive Director of Networks and Access Technologies at Telstra, stated the company is working hard to fix the problem.

"We do get some areas of the network from time to time where it runs a bit hotter than we'd like. We've got a couple of new towers due for completion in that area over the next month to two months and we think that we'll be able to deal with that hot spot there," Wright said.

"It's not as if we are not able to supply. It's a matter of just getting these towers finished and we'll have the capacity there," Wright further added.

Some customers expressed their frustration with Telstra on the Whirlpool forum while others terminated their contract without hesitation and transferred to another telecommunications network.

"Where did Telstra go so wrong," username "qd" wrote on the Whirlpool forum dated November 25. "I wouldn't mind cancelling my contract and going somewhere cheaper. The service couldn't be worse," another user with the name "chromium" posted on the forum dated November 27.

However, spokeswoman Elise Davidson of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network confirmed that Telstra network is not alone in struggling to keep up with the consumer's demand in some regions.

"All of the network providers have experienced similar issues and all are investing in upgrading infrastructure as quickly as possible," Davidson said.

Customers of all telcos were beginning to realise that no matter which network they used, there was congestion at peak times in busy places, which can mean call dropouts and slow or no access to the internet", Davidson said.

Foad Fadaghi, a telecommunications analyst at Telsyte, stated it is expected to experience weak data speed on all networks during peak periods due to spectrum limitations and general network congestion as well.

Phil Sweeney from Melbourne, who gathers information and sometimes writes for the Whirlpool website, has also been experiencing the Telstra congestion problems. According to Sweeney, Telstra users at the Whirlpool forum thread all agree that Telstra's network was overloaded due to an influx of customers.

"When you try to access data services such as web browsing, email or apps like Twitter, it will either be extremely slow or won't connect at all," Sweeney shared.

Sweeney also revealed the congestion concern had already improved earlier this year when Telstra added capacity to its network. Unfortunately, its network performance deteriorated again disappointing the Telstra customers.

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