Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton today announced that new mobile base stations to improve mobile coverage under round 2 of the Australian Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program will be deployed at Ballimore, Westella and Yellow Mountain.
“I’m so pleased to announce new coverage for areas around Dubbo including Ballimore and Westella,” Mr Coulton said.
“A large black spot in the Condobolin and Tottenham area will also receive coverage from a tower on Yellow Mountain. The residents of this area have been lobbying for this tower for many years and I am pleased that the Coalition Government has delivered for this area.
“Round 2 of the Coalition’s Mobile Black Spots Program will deliver new or upgraded coverage to 6500 homes and business across 17,500 square kilometres via 266 new or upgraded towers. This includes 1900 kilometres of major transport routes.
“Labor did not help build a single mobile phone tower nor invest a single cent in mobile coverage in six years of Government. I’m proud to be delivering better mobile coverage to Parkes electorate.”
Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash praised the Program.
“In total, Rounds 1 and 2 of the Coalition’s Program will deliver new coverage to 32,000 homes and businesses across 86,000 square kilometres including 7600 of major transport routes via 765 new mobile phone towers,” Minister Nash said.
“I aim to help build the kinds of communities our children and grandchildren either want to stay in or come back to, and better mobile phone coverage is a big part of that.”
Mr Coulton said including co-contributions from carriers and state governments, round 2 represents a total new investment of $213 million towards improved mobile coverage.
The locations for round 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Program were selected following an appeal to the public to nominate black spots.
These locations were entered into the national map which was provided to mobile network providers to assist them to develop funding applications. These were assessed against the program guidelines by the Department of Communications and the Minister accepted the Department’s recommendations without change.
“The new base stations in the Parkes electorate are due to the efforts of the community in identifying black spot locations and advocating for them to be fixed,” said Mr Coulton.
The locations of all of the 266 base stations can be found on the national map at www.nationalmap.gov.au.
More information about the Coalition Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program can be found at www.communications.gov.au/mbsp
Media Contacts
For Minister Nash: Les White 0409 805 122
For Mr Coulton: Amy Welham 0448 477 830
