Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley, today announced the sites for new or upgraded mobile base stations to be built in the electorate of Farrer, under Round 1 of the Abbott Government’s $100 million Mobile Black Spot Programme.
According to Ms Ley “fixing mobile blackspots was a key election commitment from the
Coalition and a very important promise to my electorate, to begin filling some of the enormous communication gaps we were suffering from”.
“This is great news for thousands of mobile users across the electorate, which will help
them conduct everyday business, essential calls or simple and routine communication.”
A total of eight new or revamped towers to address blackspot areas in Farrer include:
• A section along the Riverina Highway
between Corowa and Finley, including the community of Savernake.
• Burrumbuttock and north towards Walbundrie
• Areas west of Deniliquin
including the blackspot north from Bunnaloo to Wanganella
• Wentworth and northern outskirts, along the Pooncarie Road
• The Mid Western Highway northeast of Hay
In addition to the $100 million in Commonwealth funding for the first stage of the program,
a further $60 million in funding has also been announced for Round 2.
Round 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Programme, along with Telstra’s commitment to build 200 new 4G mini base stations, will offer further opportunities to meet unmet demand and provide coverage to more locations.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher said “the program has delivered substantial competitive benefits, with both Telstra and Vodafone granted funding to build new or upgraded base stations”.
“It is also important to note, the mobile network operator selected to build a base station must give the other mobile network operators the opportunity to co-locate on that base station,” Mr Fletcher concluded.
The first base stations to be funded under the Programme will begin to roll out in the second
half of 2015, with the full roll out continuing over a three year period.
A map of locations which will receive new or upgraded coverage under the first round of funding is available from http://nationalmap.gov.au/
