Mobile blackspots east of Linden excluded from funding program

Ms Templeman said poor mobile coverage affected much of the Mountains, and only areas west of Linden would be considered for funding.

“Anyone living or driving through the Mountains will know there are large areas that suffer from poor to zero mobile reception,” she said. “That's not just an inconvenience, it’s a big problem when bushfires are a feature of every single summer.”

Ms Templeman said as the NBN replaced landlines, thousands risked being left without any form of communication if the power goes down. 

“Every village in the Mountains has mobile blackspots, but the government won’t include any east of Linden because they don’t qualify as regional.”

“The government clearly knows its eligibility criteria are flawed – because they made a one-off exception to include Yellow Rock in the last round, even though there’s no sign of it being constructed yet.”

Ms Templeman said there were 72 registered blackspots in the Mountains and Hawkesbury, but only eight had been funded and few were operational. The federal government is asking residents to identify further gaps in coverage “but we’ve only been given until October 11 to submit new locations”.

Residents are asked to email the location, including road section, and latitude and longitude of mobile blackspots if known, to susan.templeman.mp@aph.gov.au.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Regional Services, Senator Brigid McKenzie, said the majority of the Blue Mountains was eligible for funding under round four, including the area to the north and south of Yellow Rock base station and Linden.

As for Yellow Rock’s coming works, the spokeswoman said “Telstra has advised it has commenced planning for the funded Yellow Rock base station and all priority locations round solutions are expected to be complete by 30 June, 2019”.

Registered blackspots at www.nationalmap.gov.au.