Telstra will be upgrading its mobile base station at Gapsted next week, and Wangaratta South the following week, temporarily affecting mobile services in the area.

The Wangaratta South station will be switched off for works from Monday to Thursday (10-13 November), with intermittent outages from Friday to Sunday (14-16 November).

The Gapsted station is being switched off on Wednesday/Thursday (5/6 November) and will be off from 7am to 5pm on Friday, 7 November.

Telstra regional general manager Jenny Gray said the upgrades will bring a better 4G/5G user experience by improving the mobile site’s capacity, meaning faster downloads, smoother streaming and less congestion.

Telstra said landline services, NBN and satellite internet services, and mobile coverage from other providers will not be impacted during the works and any calls to Triple Zero from a Telstra mobile when the site is off air will automatically connect to another mobile network if available for connection to emergency services.

Telstra customers can continue to make calls and send texts during disruption to mobile services by switching on Wi-Fi Calling.

Business owners are encouraged to talk to their provider about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their NBN or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions.