Fiona Nash says criticism at lack of ongoing mobile black spot funding is unwarranted

Regional Communications Minister, Fiona Nash, has responded to disappointment expressed in regional Australia at the lack of ongoing funding for mobile phone towers.

The $220 million allocated to the Mobile Black Spot Program in Tuesday’s budget papers is for rounds one, two and three, already announced.

The round one build is not yet complete, round two locations are being finalised and round three locations are yet to be finalised.

AgForce general president, Grant Maudsley , said he was disappointed there was not a boost to already announced mobile phone black spot funding.

“The need for more affordable and reliable phone and internet services is the number one issue for people living, working and travelling in the bush,” he said. “While there is funding in the budget to continue the mobile phone black spots program, we’d like to see the investment in telecommunications infrastructure increased and fast-tracked.”

He understood that it takes time to build mobile infrastructure.

QFF president Stuart Armitage was also disappointed, saying that Queensland farm businesses are modern, innovative and require access to ‘big data’ services.

“The budget has failed to adequately address our sector’s concerns with ‘mobile blackspots’, or deliver better connectivity and download and upload speeds,” he said.

Similarly, Cotton Australia general manager, Michael Murray, had called on the government to commit to ongoing funding in the budget to address “the critical issue of mobile phone black spot coverage”.

“City dwellers take mobile phone coverage for granted, but in many rural areas of Australia coverage is patchy or non-existent.

“This isn’t just an issue of convenience – mobile phone coverage is a business enabler, as well as a vitally important safety tool.”

He described the MBSP as a great initiative to date and said its future should have been secured long past the currently funded round three.

Minister Nash said there was $156 million in the current Coalition budget to continue building new mobile phone towers.

“We expect to have built more than 200 towers by mid-year,” she said.

“The telecommunications companies have all available labour in Australia busy for the next couple of years building the 765 towers we’ve already contracted and then we’ll have more towers in round three to roll out as well.

“So if we’d announced a round four in this year’s budget, those towers wouldn’t have begun to be built for at least another three years.

“Let’s not forget Labor never built a single tower nor attempted to.”

Mr Maudsley called on telecommunications providers to work quickly to build the towers and get them switched on as soon as possible.

The Queensland Country Life has gathered examples (below) of the lengths people are going to, to access mobile phone coverage at the moment.

One of those supplying a photograph was Jayne Hogarth from north Queensland, who was visiting relatives at Mitchell at the start of the year and witnessed her son climbing a windmill to contact someone in NSW.

“This particular bore is about 40 minutes from the homestead, so is the only means of mobile communication and then only by text message, otherwise it is an hour’s drive into town,” she said.

“Sometimes, there is enough reception to receive, but not send, and other times, vice versa.

“I feel for my sister-in-law and others in the bush who are trying to educate kids on meagre 10GB data allowances and paying a small fortune for the ‘privilege’, while we currently pay $54/month for our unlimited plan in an urban area.”

Another person, Chris Learned, said he once stood on the roof of a shearing shed at 10pm to check in with the wife, then the boss, and had used his quad copter more then once to fly his phone up a few hundred metres to get enough of a signal to send an sms out and back in.

Queensland’s Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy Leeanne Enoch, has raised concerns with the federal government over the selection process for new mobile phone towers that might be funded under the Mobile Black Spot Program.

“Advice from the federal department of communications and the arts indicated that a list of 130 priority mobile black spot locations had already been established based on commitments made by federal Coalition candidates in the lead-up to the last election,” she said.

“Last month, I wrote to federal communications minister, Mitch Fifield, to express my concerns around this allocation model for round three of the program. To date, I have had no response.

“If the federal government wants to pay for the election commitments of Coalition/LNP candidates that is their prerogative, but the Palaszczuk government will not commit Queensland taxpayer’s money to round three to foot their bill.

“We are committed to supporting those communities and businesses who most need new or improved coverage – with selection based on clear and robust criteria,” she said.