Phone signal essential in black spot locations

South-west area manager Bill Mundy qaushed suggestions towers should be planted on hills to provide the broadest coverage possible.

He urged residents to understand that as our device usage continued to drastically increase the need for more towers, closer to populations was essential.

Mr Mundy refused to talk about specific communities due to community consultation processes, however residents in Glenlyon and Bullarto have recently launched petitions urging Telstra to move the towers to hills.

“There are a wide range of factors that determine where existing and new mobile base stations are located, but it’s especially important to locate the sites as close as possible to the customers the site is intended to serve.” 

Residents in Glenlyon claim increasing the height of the tower would allow more residents in outlying communities to get mobile signal. Mr Mundy said this was not the case.

One resident Alex Hill dismissed the community campaign – saying the people who had kick-started it were doing so out of self interest.

A resident Donna Kelly said the tower would affect the landscape. Mr Hill said she lived near the proposed location and feared her property value would plummet. 

He argued that any coverage would be better than the complete lack of service currently experienced.

“The main concern is we have no mobile reception out here – if we do the Mr Bean act we might be able to pick a weak signal,” Mr Hill said. He compared the conditions to third-world but was willing to accept what Telstra offered. “At the moment when there is a fire or a disaster the fire goes out – we are left with no power, no landline, no radio, no telephone or not internet.” 

Mr Mundy said the locations Telstra had chosen for phone towers were designed to ensure residents had the best coverage that would allow them access calls and internet during disasters.

Towers in Sebastopol are similar to those ear-marked for black spot communities. 

The Advocate wants to know if you value mobile signal as a key service. Tell us what you think – olivia.shying@fairfaxmedia.com.au.