Perched in Bass Strait, mobile upgrade key for King Island

King Island is to receive upgraded mobile phone reception as Telstra spends $250,000 improving its service.

Telstra technician Steve King at the new communications tower. Picture: David Geraghty

The remote Bass Strait outpost of King Island is to receive upgraded mobile phone and broadband reception following a decision by Telstra to spend $250,000 improving its service for the small community of 1500 people.

Telstra’s Tasmanian general manager Michael Patterson said the company was committed to meeting the growing digital needs of rural and remote Australia, even when it appeared uneconomic to do so.

Mr Patterson said the decision to upgrade the central Telstra radio receival and transmission tower on the island’s highest hill near Grassy, which will boost transmission capacity by 17 per cent and mobile phone download speeds by 50 per cent, followed numerous complaints of outages and slow speeds by King Island businesses.

Telstra is the sole provider of communications on King Island, which is experiencing a boom in tourism following the opening of two international-standard golf courses and a continuing Asian demand for the island’s fresh premium crayfish, beef and cheese.

“There is unprecedented demand for broadband internet and mobile services on the island. We recognised we needed to deliver a faster and better experience,” Mr Patterson said.

“This is great news for residents, businesses and the growing tourism sector on King Island. The extent to which the network is affected by severe weather, congestion and dropouts should decrease significantly.”

King Island, like many areas of remote Australia, relies on high-speed optic-fibre networks supplying the bigger population centres of Tasmania, to which it is connected via the 70m “radio-hop” transmission tower and radio signals across the sea.

Despite two of Telstra’s coaxial communication cables linking mainland Australia to Tasmania passing near King Island, Mr Patterson said none of that capacity or speed could be accessed on the island.

Telstra technician Steve King, who has been helping local residents and businesses with their phone and internet connections for four years, expects complaints about slow speeds to reduce once the upgrade is completed in June.

Acting Mayor Jim Cooper said that, after “much anguish”, the Telstra upgrade would assist in making communications more reliable on an island where capacity had become severely strained.

“Through a major boost in visitor numbers, our previous service levels were simply not able to meet reasonable outcomes,” he said.

“Our extensive lobbying was driven by necessity and community expectations, and we are very happy with the response.”

Mr Patterson promised a full 4GX mobile service upgrade would shortly follow for King Island. “King Island and the rest of Tasmania are a critical part of our plan to have 99 per cent of the Australian population able to receive 4G mobile coverage by June 2017,” Mr Patterson said.

Sue Neales flew to King Island courtesy of Telstra