The Age/Fairfax:
The government has not yet decided which locations should be target by a $100 million program announced during the election, or which mobile companies should get the contract, but it has promised to spend $80 million over four years expanding existing coverage “along major transport routes, in small communities and in areas that are prone to experiencing natural disasters”. It will spend a further $20 million towards boosting coverage in holiday towns and locations “with unique coverage problems”. The parliamentary secretary to the minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, plans to visit regional areas in coming months to discuss mobile coverage and has asked for help from the public in identifying areas with poor or no mobile coverage.
Discussion paper is on the Department of Communications website. Will be interesting to read the various telcos responses and how they justify spending the money and where. Or even to know what option the government has in mind, as right now, they have three plans but don’t know which one they like. The NBN is tangled up in there too, with the government (quite sensibly) wanting to leverage the NBN towers going up for fixed wireless, for use with mobile stuff too. Nice to see them follow through with an election promise too.