The state government will build a new mobile phone tower in Ballarat's north and upgrade five more, but Lucas residents and businesses will be left waiting for another round of contracts.
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Announced on Wednesday by Digital Economy Minister Jaala Pulford, the upgrades will improve connectivity for about 34,000 homes, as part of the Connecting Victoria initiative.
Works will begin next year on the new tower and 5G upgrades to the other towers, and are expected to be finished by 2024, in partnership with Optus and TPG.
In Wendouree, the Wild Seed Cafe's Gaurav Patel said he hoped improved connectivity could help with crushing staff shortages - he's working seven days a week at the moment.
"We're just about to start order-at-table service, if the Wi-Fi's strong enough it'll help the guests," he said.
"As everyone knows, there are labour challenges, and the only way to get out of it without affecting service is order-at-table or automated services, and that's what we're looking at in the future."
Optus' Jayson Grool said the demand for access remained incredibly strong in regional areas as the pandemic recedes, with more people working from home requiring better coverage.
"We have our own plan to launch build and update towers, we've partnered with the federal government as well, and Connecting Victoria does accelerate that, and we'll see some amazing growth over the next few years," he said.
"Demand has kept going, we're noticing more and more of regional Australians are keeping connected, and as we're seeing a lot of metro people move out to regional places as well, they're dialling in or videoconferencing in to their metro offices without having to travel there physically."
But while the upgrades will benefit people in northern Ballarat and Wendouree, it's new developments in Alfredton, Delacombe, and Lucas that have been experiencing patchy or even unusable connections.
Ms Pulford said she would have more announcements for state government-supported infrastructure "soon", as part of the next set of contracts.
"We've got a really good idea of where the connectivity is rubbish and not up to scratch," she said.
"To people further to the west and south in Ballarat, we hear you, we know where your connectivity challenges are, and we'll look forward to hopefully sharing some good news with you further down the track.
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"Whether it's your business, your job, how you like to spend your leisure time, or your safety and wellbeing in an emergency, we need better connectivity."
It's not known exactly where the new tower will be built.
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