Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald MLC today called on the local community to nominate mobile black spot locations around the Hunter, and submit them to the Federal and State Governments by December 31st 2015 for consideration under Round 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Programme (MBSP).
“I congratulate the Commonwealth Government on its commitment of $60 million to provide new or upgraded mobile coverage to black spots in regional and remote Australia under Round 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Programme,” Mr MacDonald said.
“I am calling on members of the Hunter community to nominate black spots in their local area by 31 December 2015.
Black spot nominations for Round 2 of the Programme close on 31 December 2015 and can be made online at www.communications.gov.au/blackspots
Regional Development Australia (RDA) – Hunter CEO Todd Williams said ‘RDA welcomes the Commonwealth Government’s $60 million in funding for the Mobile Black Spot Programme.”
“Mobile connectivity is essential to increase the ease of doing business. If poor mobile connectivity is inhibiting your ability to do business, I call on you to nominate the location this is occurring by December 31, so that it may be considered for round two of the Mobile Black Spot Programme.
Newcastle Airport’s CEO, Dr Peter Cock said he will be submitting Newcastle Airport as a black spot for consideration under the Programme.
“Regular users of Newcastle Airport will be aware that for some telco providers the Airport is a mobile phone black spot. We have 1.1 million annual passengers; for our site to be a mobile phone black spot is unacceptable. Our region deserves an airport that has great mobile phone coverage, regardless of the telco provider you’re with.”
Locations nominated by the public as mobile black spots will be added to a national database which will be provided to mobile operators as part of a competitive selection process. Operators will be required to nominate sites where they would build new or upgraded base stations to serve the black spot locations nominated by the public.
The competitive selection process is scheduled to begin in early 2016, and the Government expects to be in a position to announce the successful locations under Round 2 by the end of 2016.
A map of mobile black spot locations and the locations which will receive new or upgraded coverage under the Programme is available on the National Map at nationalmap.gov.au/
For more information visit www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/phone/mobile-services-and-coverage/mobile-black-spot-programme