Several residents from the town and surrounding areas contacted the Bendigo Advertiser to say they had been unable to send or receive phone calls or messages for long stretches of time during the past three weeks. 

Among those affected was Mologa woman Kelly Gould who earlier this month could not contact her husband for a lift home from the hospital where she had delivered her fourth child. 

Since returning home, the only way Ms Gould has been able to reach family and friends was to leave the house and find coverage from another phone tower. 

“It is not always an easy feat with a newborn and a toddler,” she said.

The possibility she could not reach out for assistance with her two-week-old daughter or three young sons was cause for worry, she said.

Christine Hill, who is six months pregnant, is also frightened about what poor reception means for her birth. 

“When I am home, I am home alone,” the Mincha resident said.

“If something goes wrong, I don't have reliable coverage.”

The problem has also affected residents’ businesses.

Ms Gould’s husband, Ashley, runs a cropping enterprise and has had to wait days to receive emailed spray recommendations from his agronomist.  

“This made it difficult for him to manage our business and farming needs and as a result we have already changed his phone to Telstra,” Ms Gould said.

The family does not have home internet as it “desperately” awaits the arrival of the National Broadband Network.

Pyramid Hill personal trainer Amie Peters said the outages meant she could not send clients the diet and exercise plans for which they were paying. 

Just five people came to her hometown training session this week – down from 15 – because they could not confirm it was going ahead, she said. 

“It’s people’s livelihoods,” Ms Peters said. 

She accused Optus of neglecting small town customers, saying a similar problem in Bendigo would have been resolved already.  

Asked on Monday about the cause of the service interruptions, Optus explained a hardware issue on the local tower was to blame. 

“Optus technicians have determined the cause of the issue and are working to restore services as a priority,” a spokesperson said, though they would not be drawn on when customers could expect reception to return to normal.  

The company apologised to those affected and asked them to phone Optus on 133 937 to discuss their experience.