Five ACT locations eligible for funding under Mobile Black Spot Programme

Five locations across the Australian Capital Territory may be eligible to receive funding to improve mobile phone network coverage as part of the Australian Government’s Mobile Black Spot Programme, which closed for applications on 16 April 2015. The locations are the Cotter River Recreation Area, the Cotter Road, the National Equestrian Centre, Mt Stromlo, and Uriarra Village.

The locations were reported to the Department of Communications as part of a nationwide collection of over 6000 places reported to have problems with mobile phone coverage.

In December 2013, the Government announced that it was considering an initiative to extend coverage and competition in regional Australia.

$100 million of funding was committed over 4 years to improve coverage along major transport routes, in small communities and locations prone to natural disasters.

The dataset of location reports is made available for national mobile network operators to apply for the funding to improve network coverage.

In addition to the reports of five locations across the ACT a further 25 were reported in the Northern Territory, 316 in Tasmania, 469 in South Australia, 533 in Western Australia, 975 in Queensland, 1,820 in NSW, and 2,075 in Victoria.

The program is expected to provide around 250 to 300 new or upgraded mobile base stations across Australia, depending on whether co-contributions from communities, local and state governments, and industry can be received.

A spokesman from the Department of Communications said that “The Australian Government has worked closely with State, Territory and local governments (including the ACT Government) to better understand priority locations and to encourage co-contributions.”

The ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr was asked whether the ACT Government was considering contributing any funding to the program but he declined to respond.

“As the information provided by applicants is commercial-in-confidence, the Department is unable to provide detailed information about the organisations that are submitting an application for funding under the program, or the number of applications it receives,” the Department of Communications said, when asked whether any funding proposals had been received for the ACT.

The Department of Communications has not conducted independent testing to verify that the locations reported have no coverage.

However the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate within the ACT Government advises that mobile reception in the Cotter Precinct is very limited but that coverage on the eastern (city side) of the Mt Stromlo park is good.

The ACT’s comparatively low number of reports reflects that all of Canberra’s urban locations are ineligible for funding under the programme.

Additionally the area between the Mt Majura Nature Reserve and Kowen Pine Forest is also ineligible.

The Government expects to announce successful applicants and locations in the first half of 2015.