Residents in a host of small towns around Ballarat will soon be able to access mobile service from more than one provider after Optus pledged to spend $1 billion building 500 new base stations across regional Australia.
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Miners Rest, Waubra, Amphitheatre, Lexton and Ararat residents can expect to see a boost to service from the country’s second largest provider in the coming year as the company begins the roll-out what it describes as “one of the single largest investments in regional mobile infrastructure in Australia's history”.
Waubra General Store owner Karen Hinchliffe said residents of the Pyrenees town with a population of just 275 currently had no choice but to opt with Telstra given the lack of alternative coverage.
“Out here with Optus you cannot use your phone at all once you pass Learmonth, so people who have an Optus phone can only use it when they head in towards Ballarat,” Ms Hinchliffe said.
“People are always talking about poor mobile and internet coverage out here because it really is Telstra or nothing.
“Overall in a small community people would love better internet and phone coverage and as long as it’s in an appropriate spot in sure everyone would support an Optus tower.”
Friday’s announcement comes after the company pledged to spend $3.5 million building new towers at the Ballarat Base Hospital, Newington, Alfredton, Delacombe, Lake Wendouree North, Ballarat Airport and Bonshaw in September 2016.
The Newington and Alfredton towers are in their final stages of installation and are expected to be up and running in the coming months.
The investment also follows an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruling which ruled against forcing Telstra and Optus having to allow alternative providers with access to mobile infrastructure at regulated prices.
Both providers had argued such a call would provide a disincentive for investing in regional Australia.
Regional marketing manager Duane Dalton said the roll-out of new mobile towers proved Optus was committed to providing an alternative for regional customers. Optus serves 98.5 per cent of the Australian population compared with Telstra which exceeds 99 per cent.
“We’re committed to making sure we service customers in regional and rural Australia,” Mr Dalton said.