Blue Mountains City Council has finalised a lease agreement with Telstra to improve mobile reception in the Winmalee and Yellow Rock area.
Councillors will vote to publicly exhibit the draft lease to install a telecommunications tower at Winmalee's Summerhayes Park at their next meeting on Tuesday, October 13.
The breakthrough follows a visit last month by the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, to the Blue Mountains where improving mobile phone reception was at the top of the agenda.
Mr Fletcher held discussions with local Rural Fire Service members, community leaders and Telstra at the Winmalee Rural Fire Brigade on September 22.
Federal Member for Macquarie Louise Markus helped organise the roundtable to focus on improved communications, especially during bushfires.
"I am strongly advocating for better, more reliable coverage in Winmalee and Yellow Rock and will continue to make representations to the new Minister for Communications, Mitch Fifield," she said.
Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill welcomed the extended coverage that will be provided following the successful lease negotiations, especially with bushfire season upon us. Telstra will lodge a development application once the lease has been signed.
Labor's Macquarie spokeswoman, Susan Templeman, also welcomed moves to improve mobile coverage in the Winmalee area.
"There's no doubt we need improvements in communications across the Mountains," she said.
"For Winmalee and Yellow Rock residents poor mobile phone coverage by commercial providers has been an issue for the 24 years I have lived in Winmalee.
"I look forward to Blue Mountains City Council and Telstra being able to resolve their differences so that the planned new tower can go ahead."
Mr Fletcher's visit to the electorate was his last as parliamentary communications secretary, having taken on the new role as Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects. He also visited Mt Tomah to check on the progress of four mobile phone towers which Mrs Markus advocated for as part of a Federal Government mobile black spot program.
Under the Coalition program, the new base stations have been contracted to Telstra and will be located in Colo Heights, Kurrajong, Mount Tomah and Webbs Creek.