Paul Fletcher, the federal Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, has been visiting Calare electorate this week talking to local council representatives, businesses and residents about the region’s mobile phone blackspots..
Hosted by John Cobb, MP for Calare, the parliamentary secretary’s visit included a community forum at Wattle Flat where he outlined the government’s $100 million Mobile Coverage Program to improve mobile phone reception in outer metropolitan, regional and remote communities around Australia.
As John Cobb noted: “Lives can literally depend on accessing mobile phone networks in emergencies, so expanding mobile phone coverage has clear benefits to public safety – as well as to the business capacity of regional communities.”
The Mobile Coverage Programme has two elements, one being an $80 million Mobile Network Expansion Project to improve mobile coverage along major transport routes, in small communities and in areas that are prone to natural disasters.
The other is a $20 million Mobile Black Spot Project to upgrade mobile coverage in locations with unique coverage problems such as a high demand for services.
John Cobb says information on locations with poor or no mobile coverage can be emailed to mobilecoverage@communications.gov.au.
So go to it, Canowindra!
By Derek Maitland