Mobile phone coverage in Rokewood, on the Telstra network, needs an upgrade before work begins on the Golden Plains Wind Farm brings hundreds of workers to the town, residents say.
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While the town is covered by an Optus tower, the nearest Telstra towers are in Cressy and Dereel.
Golden Plains Shire Council has applied repeatedly for Mobile Black Spot Funding but has been unsuccessful.
One small business owner living in the town said they had to swap providers as the coverage was so unreliable.
Rokewood General Store owner Helena Kirby said she would often see people outside her shop wandering around, looking for coverage.
"You just have to pick certain spots where you'll pick it up," she said.
"We're in a little bit of a hollow, so whenever you're in the actual township, it's hard to get a signal with Telstra.
"The thing is, with the wind farm coming, we'll be looking at 700 workers, and I'm sure they're all going to be battling to get service."
There were also signal problems during the 2013 Dereel bushfire - according to council, emergency services personnel were unable to get coverage during the crisis.
Last summer's bushfires, and reports of poor coverage in affected towns like Lexton, have added to the concerns.
READ MORE: Phone coverage one step closer in Lexton
Golden Plains mayor Owen Sharkey said in a statement the lack of reliable coverage in Rokewood is a "safety issue" that has "left many residents, businesses and their workforce without connectivity".
"In addition to the local homes and businesses, Rokewood is the service centre for many local farms. The town has a primary school and kindergarten; and Hesse Health, council and a number of allied health professionals all provide services out of Rokewood," he said.
"One of the shire's key arterial roads, the Rokewood-Shelford Road, also runs through Rokewood and is an important transport route for the community and surrounding regions. Having access to mobile coverage whilst delivering services to rural communities is vitally important. It helps keep our residents, businesses and staff safe and connected.
"Council has been lobbying for Telstra mobile coverage for Rokewood for many years, along with a number of other mobile black spots across Golden Plains."
Telstra's acting regional manager, Marcus Swinburne, said two towers, at Cressy and Dereel, provide 3G and 4G mobile coverage in Rokewood.
"The Dereel tower was built in November 2017 by Telstra as part of the Mobile Blackspot Program to improve mobile coverage into the local area," he said in a statement.
"While the Telstra base station at Cressy did experience some intermittent power issues during March and April, it is now operating normally. Telstra is replacing the batteries at that mobile site to ensure mobile coverage continues for an extended period in the case of any future power outages."
He said there were several factors which could influence mobile coverage, including the type of handset being used, hills and valleys, and tall trees and structures.
Customers could also use Wi-Fi calling, or buy boosting devices for their home, he added.
Rokewood is still in the federal government's database of areas nominated for Mobile Black Spot funding, though a spokesperson for Regional Communications Minister Mark Coulton said local governments are not able to apply directly for funding under the program.
"Instead they are encouraged to work directly with eligible applicants to develop proposals to address their local coverage issues," they said in a statement.
"Local governments are able to work with an applicant in a number of ways including offering in-kind support or financial co-contributions towards proposals, although this is not required for a proposal to be successful under the program."
A discussion paper was released in April seeking feedback from industry and the community on options for the design of the program's Round 5A - submissions close June 19.
$80 million has been allocated for Round 6 of the program.
In emergencies, if there is a working mobile base station of any network in the area, any Triple Zero call from a mobile phone will be connected, regardless of which network it is with.
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