Maranoa MP: Expanding Eromanga’s digital future 

April 21, 2020

Eromanga’s mobile reception will be boosted with a Telstra tower to be installed this year – funded through Round Five of the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Programme – handing locals and travellers a secure connection in the digital age, Maranoa MP David Littleproud said.

“I promised before being elected to improve mobile coverage and in the last term I secured 35 new towers. An additional 11 across Maranoa builds on the Federal Government’s commitment to improve connectivity across regional Australia,” Mr Littleproud said.

“Eromanga is an important hub for travellers and graziers, so making mobile reception more accessible is going to really strengthen Eromanga’s connections further afield.

“I’m a firm believer that rural communities need access to services just like our city cousins and the installation of a mobile tower here is a great step to making sure we can communicate to make business plans, have telehealth appointments with GPs, keep up to speed with education or contact our loved ones.

“My goal is to help build the kinds of communities our children and grandchildren either want to stay in or come back to, and better mobile phone coverage is certainly a big part of that.

“Breaks in our communications hinder emergency services, tourism and business – that’s why this program is so important for Maranoa and why I’ve been advocating so hard on this issue.”

The announcement, made by Mr Littleproud, the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Hon Paul Fletcher, and Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government, Hon Mark Coulton, comes as more than $836 million is being invested in new mobile infrastructure across the Mobile Black Spot Program’s five rounds.

“More than 77 per cent of the 1047 base stations funded through the first four rounds of the Program are now complete taking us past the 800 mobile base station milestone,” Minister Fletcher said.

 

Eleven base stations under Round 5 in Maranoa are scheduled to roll out in the coming months and are expected be activated by the end of the year.

“Our Mobile Black Spot program is connecting regional communities and businesses, enabling them to contribute more effectively to our local, regional and national economies,” Minister Coulton said.

More information about the program is available at: communications.gov.au/mbsp.

The Federal Government is contributing a total of $34 million to Round 5 of the Program.

ENDS