Telstra's 4G network goes down again

Telstra has confirmed its mobile network is having issues as users report problems with making voice calls and using mobile data nationwide.

“We’re working to fix an issue impacting some mobile services,” the telco said in a brief statement to social media.

“Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Users began to report problems with the 4G network at about 9.30 AEST.

Telstra initially advised customers to check the company’s outage service for network status, however users quickly found it also broken and returning error messages.

The outage appears to be large-scale with users taking to social media channels to report issues both in CBD as well as regional areas.

According to Aussie Outages, the mainland capitals of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth are seeing the highest concentrations of people experiencing problems.

Telstra took over an hour to confirm the issues on its network and copped considerable flak from users on the delayed notification.

It is not yet clear what the cause of the current outage is. A spokesperson for the carrier has been contacted for comment.

Telstra indicated the cause was hardware failure.

It said that the issues are causing congestion on its 3G network. It also said that 000 calls "will connect over other carriers’ networks where they have mobile coverage."

Telstra has seen a greater frequency of outages impacted its mobile network over the past year.

Earlier this month, mobile voice calls as well as emergency 000 experienced issues, allegedly due to a fibre cut caused by a lightning strike.

Telstra also suffered a major outage on April 30 which affected both mobile and NBN services. The telco attributed that problem to "technical changes made ahead of upgrades to mobile traffic control equipment in [its] Exhibition Street exchange in Melbourne."

Brisbane-based users suffered an outage in January 2018, while Sydney-based users were left without services in September last year.

Update, 12.20pm: Telstra said that "4G voice and data traffic volume is improving nationally after we bypassed hardware that had been preventing some customers from accessing the 4G mobile network. 3G voice and data volumes are also improving."

Update, 2.10pm: Telstra said the problems had been fixed.