THE Federal Government has released a database of some 6000 locations in outer metropolitan, regional and remote Australia that have been nominated by Australians as having inadequate mobile coverage.
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It will come as no surprise to residents of the Bega Valley that numerous locations in the area have been nominated, including Tathra, Bermagui, Tanja, Numbugga, Tantawangalo, Merimbula, Pambula, Wallagoot, Eden, Brown Mountain, Murrah, Wyndham, Myrtle Mountain and Bega township.
Those nominated are eligible for new or enhanced mobile base stations under the government's $100million Mobile Black Spot Program.
The locations have been reported to the Department of Communications by a State Government, local council, community representatives and individual as having no mobile coverage.
The money will be allocated through a competitive selection process, under which Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, as well as specialist mobile infrastructure providers, will nominate locations — drawn from the 6000 on the database — where they would build a new or enhanced mobile base station.
Before the selection process begins, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher will visit the Bega Valley to listen to community concerns with Member for Eden-Monaro Peter Hendy.
“There are a lot of black spots in Eden-Monaro, and we’ve already had forums in Queanbeyan and Cooma with Mr Fletcher,” Dr Hendy said (BDN 21/3).
“We are organising a forum for Bega in mid-November and I also plan to take Mr Fletcher to Tathra to meet with locals so he can understand the extent of the problem there,” he said.
Rob White from Tathra Beach Apartments and a member of the Tathra Chamber of Commerce committee welcomed Dr Hendy’s input, but is dubious about Telstra’s commitment to helping his community.
“Telstra has admitted there are black spots in Tathra, in the township and along the coast,” he said.
“However, its solution is to plonk one big tower on the headland, which it knows the community is opposed to visually.
“The community has had meetings with Telstra engineers and staff and there have been many suggestions about smaller towers, boosters and receptors in multiple locations, but as the more expensive option they are not interested and it’s an easy cop out for them to blame headland opposition,” he said.
Dr Hendy acknowledged $100million was only a fraction of what is needed to address mobile black spot issues in regional Australia.
“When you look at black spots in Eden-Monaro alone you get a sense of how big the problem is so $100million clearly doesn’t cover everything,” he said.
“Other rural and regional MPs from my party are thinking of formally petitioning the Federal Government to put in more money going into the next election as this is a program that really needs to be expanded.”