Revealed: Map of Burnett’s mobile coverage black spots
Mobile coverage black spots are damaging businesses and risking lives across the Burnett, according to business owners. See the full black spot map.
South Burnett
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Robyn Logan often needs to rely on the loyalty of locals and the kindness of strangers to receive payment for the food, drinks and accomodation provided by her Wooroolin pub.
The mobile coverage in the area is so poor that Mrs Logan and her staff at The Grand Hotel are often unable to process transactions through their EFTPOS terminal.
“We’re just lucky that it’s usually locals,” Mrs Logan said.
When the customer is an out-of-towner, the staff have no choice but to take down their details and trust that they will pay next time they are coming through Wooroolin.
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“We take their licence and their card number and stuff and just hope for the best. One lot, they came back a week later - we’re pretty lucky that way.”
While Mrs Logan’s faith in customers’ honesty is usually repaid, it’s not a sustainable practice for a small country pub.
“For a small business in a small town, it’s a big risk that you’ve got to take,” Mrs Logan said.
The federal government’s Mobile Black Spot Database identifies 179 reception black spots across the Burnett region.
The data has not been updated since October 2018, with most sites last updated in February 2016.
A communications department spokeswoman said the database was created to assist with the first round of the government’s black spot program but, as the spots were nominated by the public, they “were not independently tested to verify the level of mobile coverage”.
“For this reason, the previous government took the decision to close the register,” she said.
New upgrades would be rolled out under the Better Connectivity program, which would build on the exiting Mobile Black Spot and Regional Connectivity schemes.
The area around the Bjelke Petersen and Boondooma Dams is a notorious South Burnett blackspot.
South Burnett councillor Kathy Duff introduced a motion in the South Burnett Regional Council meeting on March 8, calling to improve digital connectivity at the dams.
Mrs Duff’s motion has the main objective of facilitating commercial activity at these important tourist destinations for the region.
“We have fishing comps and things like that (at the dams) - the EFTPOS connection is so slow, it just holds up the whole proceedings,” Mrs Duff said.
The council has installed some satellite and NBN fixed wireless connections, which it expects will reduce the blackspots for those able to connect.
However, Mrs Duff hopes that future infrastructure upgrades will deliver improved mobile coverage worthy of the dams’ status as leading tourist destinations.
“These are two of our major tourist attractions in the South Burnett, so we certainly would be putting our hand up to get better connectivity with our mobile phone coverage,” Mrs Duff said.
Prendergast’s Irish Tavern owner Miranda Prendergast said the business , located two kilometres from Bjelke Petersen Dam, had “very, very poor” mobile coverage.
“It’s crippling in that way,” Mrs Prendergast said.
While the restaurant has not lost any business due to connectivity issues related to the EFTPOS terminal, Mrs Prendergast is aware of potential customers who have decided against coming to the restaurant due to the poor reception.
“I do get customers that won’t come because they’ll be on call, (emergency) service workers and things like that - because they can’t get service they just won’t attend,” she said.
“We do lose customers in that way.”
The inability to contact emergency services via mobile phone is the most serious consequence of being in a blackspot area.
Mrs Logan knows of many elderly people living in the more remote areas around Wooroolin who are wholly reliant on mobile phones to contact their families and emergency services but are unable to do so due to the poor coverage.
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“It’s putting their lives at risk - it’s just dangerous out there for people who don’t have service,” she said.
Even when the call can be placed to emergency services with a landline, the ability of the service vehicles to navigate to a remote location is hampered by the lack of connectivity.
“It‘s not their fault, but they could lose somebody’s life, because we don’t have the service there to do what they’ve got to do,” she said.
Angus Douglas, owner of Mingo Crossing Caravan Park in the North Burnett, recalls a road accident that occurred around three years ago involving his wife, daughter and nine-year-old granddaughter.
After rolling the car on a country road in Mingo Crossing, Mr Douglas’ wife and daughter were unable to contact emergency services due to a poor signal.
Mr Douglas’ granddaughter needed to run up the road where there was a better signal in order to call the police.
Despite this experience, Mr Douglas is not pushing for the mobile connectivity to be improved - he does not experience issues with processing EFTPOS transactions due to the terminal using a landline connection.
Mr Douglas finds that the forced disconnection from mobile devices has a positive effect on the customers staying at his caravan park.
“I’m not chasing getting the signal fixed, because the majority of feedback I get from the customers here is that they like (not having a mobile service),” Mr Douglas said.
“The majority of people get used to not having it and they relax.”
There are indeed benefits to having a digital detox from time to time.
But for business owners like Mrs Logan, a reliable mobile connection is crucial technological infrastructure without which her business is suffering.
“You’d think that in the year 2023 we shouldn’t have any black spots,” Mrs Logan said.
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