Tiny towns promised a mobile reception boost

A handful of small southwest towns will have new phone towers built this year, with MP David Littleproud promising connectivity on par with our ‘city cousins’.

SIGNAL BOOST: A new mobile phone tower has been promised for Eromanga, west of Quilpie

MOBILE reception is set to be boosted in Eromanga, with a new Telstra tower on its way to the small town.

Maranoa MP David Littleproud made the announcement today it will be among 11 rural communities in his electorate to receive greater coverage this year, as he fulfils an election promise to improve connectivity.

“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.”

No official date has been set for the new Eromanga mobile tower to officially go online; by the minister’s estimate, however, all of the stations will be active by the end of the year.

The tower is being constructed under round five of the national Mobile Black Spot program, to which the federal government is contributing $34 million.

In addition to Eromanga, new mobile towers are also confirmed for Dunkeld and Teelba in the Maranoa Regional Council area.

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