Three weeks ago, financial counsellor Allison Davis could receive some mobile service at her home base around 50 kilometres north west of Coonamble.

She has a service booster that would cover the area around her house, although since Telstra switched off its 3G network on 28 October, Allison says even that hasn't prevented a drop in service.

Where she does have it, she says it's now weak.  

"It's probably an inconvenience at the moment, but across the plains, the boys who work out here have also been mentioning that the service has reduced," Ms Davis said.

"If there was, for example, an emergency, they mightn't have as much they normally would."

She is not alone.

Sharon and Tony Single on their Coonamble property 'Narratigah’. IMAGE: supplied

Better Internet for Rural, Regional & Remote Australia (BIRRR) representative Sharon Single said the group has received a "big increase" in commentary on service as rural areas switched completely over to the 4G and 5G networks

Most of it is negative, although she said there's been the odd positive email.

She said there are areas which received 3G coverage 'fortuitously' that weren't guaranteed on the official Telstra coverage map and now have no service.

Ms Single acknowledged that she has anecdotally observed 5G service at a longer distance from nearby Coonamble.  

"Sometimes maintaining phone calls is a little bit easier on the edges of town, but there's nothing groundbreaking in terms of improvement, and that would be very similar to what BIRRR has seen," Ms Single said.

"To be fair, I think there was a fairly good awareness campaign about what wouldn't work."

Telstra extended the shutoff date from 31 August this year to give customers more time to ensure their devices were 4G-compatible.

Besides mobile handsets, EFFPOS machines, farm equipment, service boosters and aerials had to be upgraded.

The Western Plains App asked a Telstra spokesperson if spectrum, a resource used to transport wireless data, had already been repurposed - or "re-farmed" - from 3G to the newer networks.

"We’ve re-farmed spectrum to thousands of mobile sites across the nation, delivering improved capacity and performance to many regional towns and communities," the spokesperson said.

"This includes places like Cobar, Coonamble, Condobolin, Lightning Ridge, Narromine and Goodooga, among a number of spots throughout the Western Plains."

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