“I’m pleased to announce that under Round two, four new mobile base stations will be deployed in Calare by Optus and Telstra. 

Hargraves in the Mid-Western region as been included in the list.

“Round 2 of the Coalition’s Mobile Black Spot Program will deliver new or upgraded coverage to 6500 homes and business across 17,500 square kilometres via 266 new or upgraded towers. This includes 1900 kilometres of major transport routes,” Mr Gee said.

Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash praised the Program.

“In total, Rounds one and two of the Coalition’s program will deliver new coverage to 32,000 homes and businesses across 86,000 square kilometres including 7600 of major transport routes via 765 new mobile phone towers,” Minister Nash said.

“I aim to help build the kinds of communities our children and grandchildren either want to stay in or come back to, and better mobile phone coverage is a big part of that.”

Mr Gee said including co-contributions from carriers and state governments, round two represents a total new investment of $213 million towards improved mobile coverage.

The locations for round two of the Mobile Black Spot Program were selected following an appeal to the public to nominate black spots.

These locations were entered into the national map which was provided to mobile network providers to assist them to develop funding applications. These were assessed against the program guidelines by the Department of Communications and the Minister accepted the Department’s recommendations without change.

“The new base stations in Calare is due to the efforts of the community in identifying black spot locations and advocating for them to be fixed,” Mr Gee added.

The locations of all of the 266 base stations can be found on the national map at www.nationalmap.gov.au.