At its January meeting on Tuesday, Federation Council unanimously agreed to request the Federal Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, State Member for Albury Justin Clancy and Andrew Cotterill, the Telecommunications Manager for Telstra to make every effort to improve the telephone coverage in these two areas in particular, but also throughout the Federation Council area.
She said Corowa has extremely poor mobile service in both the Industrial Estate and South Corowa.
“Corowa is a centre of Agriculture, Industry, Tourism, is a trucking transport hub and has many sporting facilities all of which require suitable mobile phone service,” Cr Law said.
“On speaking to one of the trucking companies in the Industrial Estate, they claim that the service is very poor, even though there is a new tower further out Redlands Road, and his home in South Corowa has very limited service making it very difficult for him to contact his drivers. I am sure there are many other businesses in that area that would like to be able to rely on the mobile service.”
Cr Law said she personally knows of people living in South Corowa, who must go outside of their homes to answer their mobile phones.
“Corowa Golf Club, which is a big business and tourist incentive, has limited service with a section of the car park marked for the best mobile reception for patrons. Also, the Corowa Race Club has a limited service, and there are other smaller businesses in South Corowa, as well as persons working from home,” she said.
“With 1000 paying customers, along with horse trainers, strappers and other licenced persons at the Corowa Races on Saturday December 30th, 2023, we received many complaints from people wanting to use their mobile phones and not being able to get service, some people were quite abusive. In the past years the TAB have not been able to operate due to poor service.
“I feel for all these businesses and their need for mobile service. In a town like Corowa a good mobile service is a necessity in operating a viable and successful business.”
Deputy Mayor Shaun Whitechurch described Cr Law’s motion as ”great”. “It certainly is time something was done.” Mayor Pat Bourke said the problem has existed “for a long, long time”.
Golf club General Manager Kim Gregg said difficulties have certainly been experienced due to poor or no mobile coverage.
“We experienced difficulties over Christmas and the New Year period and we’ve had to find manual ways of doing business – it’s not the right way to run a business,” she told The Free Press.
“We have had technicians out here and we are hoping we can hook into the optic fibre to be rolled out in Hume Street. We have spoken to politicians. We’d love to see something done as soon as possible.”
Telstra Regional General Manager for Victoria Jenny Gray, said Telstra will be conducting upgrade works to its mobile site in Rutherglen early this year, which may help improve the mobile experience for customers in and around South Corowa.
“A number of environmental factors can affect mobile coverage, such as the type of device being used, the distance from a tower, terrain (hills and valleys), vegetation or buildings,” she told The Free Press.
“Increased usage by tourists during the holiday season can also have an impact on mobile coverage.
“Residents can improve their mobile coverage by using their nbn connection to access Wi-Fi calling. This is a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls.”
Ms Gray said in some cases mobile coverage in homes or vehicles can be increased by fitting an external aerial or a phone booster.
“We also encourage business owners talk to their bank about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their nbn or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions,” she said.
“Providing regional connectivity is not just a Telstra responsibility. It’s a challenge that must be shared between Federal, State and Local governments and with providers like us and other mobile carriers.”
Telstra continually investigates new opportunities to further expand its mobile coverage, Ms Gray said, including co-investment opportunities such as the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program and Regional Connectivity Program.
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