Bureaucrats from four State Government departments are currently working through the “red tape” ahead of the promised 27 additional mobile phone towers in the South East region.
Premier Peter Malinauskas announced a funding package for the 27 towers at a press conference 16 months ago in the Millicent CFS station.
Funding is coming from the three tiers of government, industry and Telstra.
Personnel from the South Australian Financing Authority and the departments of Primary Industries, Treasury and State Development have since been involved in the project.
Independent Member for MacKillop Nick McBride quizzed the Premier in the House of Assembly last week about the quality of mobile phone coverage in his electorate.
“Has the Premier had discussions with Telstra about poor mobile coverage in our regional areas?” asked Mr McBride.
“Constituents have come to me in the last 12 months about the diminishing mobile service in my electorate, which has become even worse since the 3G has been switched off.
“Our office has received more than 100 complaints about our poor service.
“No doubt other regional members suffer the same sort of feedback.”
His query was answered instead by Treasurer Steven Mullighan who said mobile phone coverage was vital in regional areas in times of emergencies like floods and droughts.
Mr Mullighan then went on to re-announce the 27 mobile phone tower project and name the four State Government departments working on the project.
“I am pleased to advise the Member for MacKillop that Telstra has been making representations to the State Government about a partnership with Telstra and the government of South Australia, as well as the commonwealth government, to boost mobile phone coverage across the South East of our state and that includes 27 new mobile base stations across the Limestone Coast,” Minister Mullighan said.
“My advice is that will add somewhere in the order of 2400 square kilometres of new 4G coverage, approximately a 44% increase in coverage for these important mobile telephone services.”
Federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin said he was unimpressed by the delays.
“The mobile base stations (phone towers) promised for the Limestone Coast under the Regional Connectivity Program more than twelve months ago remain stuck in the ‘planning’ phase without so much as a shovel in the ground,” Mr Pasin said.
“Clearly no effort was made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or his Communications Minister to fast track the rollout of these towers before 3G was disabled.
“It’s now 2.5 years since Labor was elected and mobile phone service is worse now than at any time in the last decade.”
The SE Voice has approached Telstra for a response.
