By Parker McKenzie
Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child has welcomed the announcement of funding for mobile towers across the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, as Yarra Ranges Council continues to advocate for further investment in the region.
Mayor Child said while the funding is good news, the council was looking at the “bigger picture.”
“Our surveys show there was a serious deficiency in broadband reliability and access in an emergency or disaster situation, but also the day-to-day running of businesses where we have to rely on good, high-quality bandwidth,” he said.
“Fibre to the node has real concerns for us. When you look at urban and rural areas, those nodes out on the street are not powered, so we can lose that broadband NBN connection, which is a real concern.”
The $255 million project funded by Connecting Victoria will build dozens of mobile towers throughout the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges. Connecting Victoria is a program by the state government aiming to fast-track better mobile coverage and broadband across the state.
In the Dandenong Ranges, two mobile towers are planned to be built in each of Cockatoo, Selby, Tremont and Mount Dandenong and one mobile tower in each of Avonsleigh, Clematis, Menzies Creek, Belgrave South, Belgrave, Tecoma, Upwey, Ferntree Gully, Boronia, Kalorama, Olinda and Monbulk.
Mayor Child said the reliability of power supply and internet connection goes hand-in-hand.
“If we don’t have that reliability and power supply, we have the same problem,” he said.
“There’s more to be done and that’s what the council will keep advocating for.”
The state government said the construction of the towers will be completed by 2026.
Mayor Child said the rollout of the mobile towers will take time.
“To actually make a commitment to that number of towers must be going to benefit the community,” he said.
“It’s fantastic and it will cover a lot of the black spots. We are still going to highlight the concern that we have with broadband and the NBN network.”
