Proposals in for $100m mobile black spots program

The federal government’s $100 million Mobile Black Spot Programme has reached a milestone, with proposals now received for funding under the program.

“This is about delivering on the Coalition’s election commitment to boost mobile coverage in outer metropolitan, regional and remote Australia,” said Paul Fletcher MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications.

“Each of the mobile network operators - Telstra, Optus and Vodafone - has come forward with a proposal. The government is currently assessing the proposals and aims to be in a position to announce the list of base stations by 30 June 2015,” Fletcher said.

“The competitive selection process for locations is not a ‘winner takes all’ process; rather, the funding will be allocated ‘base station by base station,” Fletcher said.

The government will assess each proposed base station against the criteria specified in the Programme Guidelines to determine the base stations to receive funding.

“The process is designed to maximise competition in two ways - between locations and between bidders - to get as many new base stations as possible for the money.”

The program has been designed to encourage co-contributions from other levels of government. The Victorian Government recently announced its decision to support a bid for funding under the program.

This follows a commitment by the NSW Government to allocate $25 million to improved mobile coverage, working in conjunction with the Commonwealth Programme, and a commitment of $35 million by the WA Government.

A number of local councils have offered cash or in-kind contributions.

The details of the competitive selection process are set out in the program guidelines, which are available on the Department of Communications website.