The test was witnessed by several of Mr Young’s close friends, and showed the CDMA phone had one to two bars of service but the Next G handset was unable to receive service.

“We are showing that CDMA phones can get service here consistently,” Mr Young’s childhood friend Brendan Appleby said.

“We aren’t saying Next G never works because we know Grahame did end up getting through.

“But it just isn’t consistent enough, you don’t know when you will get service.”

The Merriwagga community has thrown more mud at Telstra, with Black Stump Hotel worker Allana Renton disputing the communications giant’s claim that the first call Mr Young made at 6.08pm went through and lasted for 40 seconds.

It was Miss Renton who eventually received Mr Young’s call for help and sent publican Sharon Stuart to the scene with the adrenalin.

She confirmed the records Mr Appleby retrieved from Mr Young’s phone and said she didn’t get a call, which dropped out, until 6.18pm.

Seconds later, another call came through and this time she was able to talk to Mr Young and send help.

“I think it is terrible they are claiming the phone call worked, it simply did not work,” Miss Renton said.

“Telstra need to take this as a warning, someone has died because the system is not good enough.

“We don’t want anyone else to have to go through this and it is as simple as that, and people out here are at risk, farmers are out on their own and if something goes wrong they need to be able to rely on their phones to call for help.

“It just feels horrible, knowing he desperately needed help and no one could do anything for him.”

But Telstra Country Wide’s area manager Andrew Cottrill said the claims by the hotel workers were not true, and said Telstra had evidence showing the call went through.

“We have data saying the call connected to the hotel. It was answered by someone or something and lasted for 43 seconds before being terminated by Mr Young’s mobile phone,” Mr Cottrill said.