December 31 deadline for mobile black spot nominations in Wide Bay
9th December, 2015
Local residents have until 31 December to nominate mobile phone black spot locations for consideration for funding under Round 2 of the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Programme.
Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss said, “Under the Round 1 of the Programme Wide Bay received funding to upgrade mobile phone coverage of Glastonbury, Kin-Kin, Widgee, Woolooga and the Maryborough-Biggenden Road. This package included $864,000 in funding from the Australian Government.
“Under Round 2, the Coalition Government has committed $60 million to upgrade mobile phone coverage in rural, regional and remote communities around Australia. To ensure that Wide Bay has the best chance of a fair share of the funding, I strongly encourage constituents to nominate mobile black spots prior to the December 31 deadline,” Mr Truss said.
Wide Bay residents can nominate mobile black spots online at www.communications.gov.au/blackspots, or by emailing Mr Truss at w.truss.mp@aph.gov.au.
“The Federal Liberal National Government is acutely aware of how important mobile phone coverage is to regional communities. This is why we invested $100 million in the first round of the programme to deliver 500 new mobile base stations around Australia,” Mr Truss said.
“The new locations nominated by people in local communities will be added to a national database, which will be provided to mobile operators as part of a competitive selection process. Operators will then be required to put forward proposals for new or upgraded sites to address these black spots.”
Over 6,000 locations were nominated under Round 1 of the programme, resulting in new or upgraded coverage for around 3,000 of the nominated black spots. The remaining black spots not upgraded under Round 1 of the programme will be automatically included in the database as eligible locations for Round 2.
A map of mobile black spot locations and the locations which will receive new or upgraded coverage under the Programme is available on the National Map: http://nationalmap.gov.au/
