Residents of the Lower Mountains can look forward to improved mobile coverage thanks to the long-awaited switching on of the new Telstra mobile tower at Yellow Rock.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
The new tower was funded under the federal government's Mobile Black Spot Program, and went live on Wednesday, October 20, after a five-year wait.
"This tower has been a long-awaited piece of infrastructure for the community of Yellow Rock, and I am delighted it's now operational," said Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman.
"It has been a long five years for the community, particularly because this area knows all too well how dangerous a lack of communication can be during natural disasters.
"No one needs reminding about how affected the Yellow Rock community was by the 2013 bushfires, and poor mobile coverage can turn a dangerous situation deadly.
"Labor made a commitment to build this tower way back in 2016, when we were announcing our intention to give priority to under-serviced regional areas of NSW by improving delivery of the Mobile Black Spot program."
Ms Templeman added that funding for the Mobile Black Spot program is "fraught", and noted that Mt Tomah is still waiting for its own mobile tower, which she said was promised in 2015.
"The Federal and NSW Liberal governments cruelly reneged on that three years later, moving it to the NSW Central West, and the community has been left waiting ever since," she said.
"And when the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires swept through, Mount Tomah and surrounds had no reliable communication system to rely upon.
"All of the Blue Mountains residents deserve reliable communications."
All Blue Mountains residents deserve reliable communications
- Federal MP for Macquarie Susan Templeman
Liberal Senator Marise Payne pointed out that the Yellow Rock mobile base station will provide "new and improved mobile coverage between Springwood, Winmalee, Warrimoo and Yellow Rock North.
"The battery back-up at this site has been upgraded to 12 hours, enabling the site to continue operating for longer if the power goes out during or after natural disasters.
"While I appreciate the Member for Macquarie's enthusiastic endorsement of this important milestone, the fact remains that after six years of being in government, Labor did not spend one dollar of public money on improving mobile communications networks in regional and remote Australia.
"The government has committed $80 million for Round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, for which the design process is expected to commence soon."
