[LINK] Seeking Advice: Now I'm an Optus Blackspot

[George Bray]

Dear Link Brains Trust,

I've been an Optus customer since they started, maybe 20 years.  I've
been living in Canberra for ten of them and using the service quite
happily.

But over the last year, possibly since they got a swag of new iPhone
customers, the network where I live (and in Canberra generally) has
become very poor. Constant dropouts, inaudible voice quality, just
like how bad the early analogue cellphone services in Australia were.

I called Optus to see about porting my number to a different carrier,
but as I'm still "in contract" they want more than $1000 to leave.
The operator kindly looked up my address and confirmed that I'm in a
"black spot", and in this circumstance they can give me a credit on my
bill of $15/m for the cost of diverting my mobile to another one.

I tried this diversion, and the result was even worse than the
standard Optus service.  There are long delays moving voice through
the networks like this - it's not a viable solution.

So I'm interested in any technological or legal solutions to this.

Will the ACMA/Ombudsman be able to help my plight, perhaps forcing
Optus to release me from the contract for a more reasonable fee? I'm
sure I'm not the only one to be in this situation where I must
continue paying for a business phone service that has deteriorated to
the point of being unusable.

Are there any femtocell or microcell devices available in AU?  With a
bigger antenna I think the service may improve.

George

-- 
George Bray, Canberra, Australia. http://geobray.com