Tathra's displaced residents say the destructive bushfire that ripped through their secluded NSW holiday town should be a "kick in the bum" for the government and mobile phone providers to improve reception.
They hope an independent inquiry announced on Wednesday into the weekend bushfire will examine the role telecommunications played in letting people know about the emergency.
Many locals have claimed they only received SMS messages minutes before the blaze rushed their homes.
Others say they didn't receive any notification of danger until police appeared on their street evacuating people.
Tathra is a well-known mobile-phone blackspot.
Resident Joanne Coulton, who runs Esther Lodge holiday accommodation, says the independent inquiry announced by NSW Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant "must look into the phone disruptions".
"It should be a kick in the bum for the government," she said on Wednesday.
"We house doctors who have been assigned to Bega Hospital - specialists and on-call - they stay with us. And they can't rely on the service."
Other residents said while they're used to having to stand in certain parts of their home to make a phone call, Sunday's fire turned a "nuisance" into a "danger".
Three other displaced residents at the Bega evacuation centre echoed Ms Coulton's call for the review to focus on mobile phone coverage.
One elderly resident said she had been unable to reach her husband for three days after he stayed in Tathra to defend their home and landlines failed.
Telstra representatives at the evacuation centre updated residents on the state of the overall network which was damaged in the fire.
Tathra's mobile phone tower base-station lost power for 18 hours but permanent electricity had been re-established, Telstra regional manager Chris Taylor told the crowd.
"There are repairs that need to be done to that base-station, there is fire damage around the antennas but it's operating at the moment," he said, adding there was also damage to the landline network which was still being assessed.
Mr Taylor told ABC radio earlier on Wednesday that messages were sent to handsets in the region just before 4pm - around the time the tower lost power.
Patchy service or issues with devices could account for delays in people receiving the text, he said,
Tathra resident Janet Lewis told AAP on Monday: "The first I heard of an emergency was when the cops drove past and yelled 'Evacuate!' out of a megaphone."
"Real old school," she said.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has insisted authorities did all they could to alert residents.
Messages were delivered via mobiles and also landline phone calls.
Emergency warnings were very targeted, with some people told to stay and others advised to evacuate, she said in Bega on Monday.
"Because of the location, mobile phone reception is not always possible and I understand very early on some of the phone towers were damaged themselves," Ms Berejiklian said.
"Communication was a challenge, but I'm absolutely confident we did everything we could as quickly as possible to get the message out."
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