Transcript: ABC The World Today, 25/8/15

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the frustration of dealing with mobile phone blackspots. For many Australians in regional areas it's a far too regular occurrence and some fear could be deadly.

The Federal Government has been promising to deliver better satellite and mobile phone tower coverage for rural Australians over the next three years.

One of the first places it wants to showcase is Dalton; population just over 100 in southern New South Wales.

Reporter Michael Cavanagh joined locals who gathered in the pub to hear the plans of Government members and Telstra officials.

DAVID WISEMAN: Well the best spot around town is the cemetery, if you want really good coverage. Other than that it's dodgy as.

MICHAEL CAVANAGH: Publican of the Royal Dalton Hotel, David Wiseman, explaining where you need to head now to get mobile phone reception in the town.

The cemetery is still likely to be alive with people making mobile phone calls, unless you are within 200 metres of the local Telstra exchange where a mini base station has been installed.

DALTON LOCAL: We're trying to run a business; we're trying to live. We had two near misses last season; a bush fire which nobody could be contacted to attend the fire, then we also had a truck driver who was delivering hay to a neighbouring property who proceeded to have a heart attack.

Emergency services cannot be contacted. Somebody is going to lose their life; it is serious and we want to be heard.

DALTON LOCAL 2: We've got priority assist; we have a life threatening illness in the family. I ring Telstra and you know what they said to me? I hope this is not the reason why you've got priority assist to get a sat phone, there's not enough for everyone.

If you can't deliver, don't give the service.

DALTON LOCAL 3: Our service has halved; we are paying $100 a month, which is a minimal amount compared to some other people who are paying. So with this new satellite, is that actually going to go to the people who really need it or every Tom, Dick and Harry?

MICHAEL CAVANAGH: Many of the towns hundred or so citizens had gathered in the pub's front bar to hear how the mobile coverage in their areas would be enhanced.

If they were expecting to be able to just hit dial on their mobile they were probably disappointed.

Dalton is one of the places selected over the next three years; 429 base stations will be erected across the country in areas identified as part of the Federal Government's blackspot program.

But Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Paul Fletcher admitted to those gathered in the pub, the interim mini base station installed in the hamlet's Telstra exchange was not a panacea.

It will bring 4G, but to use it, Dalton residents need to be within 200 metres of it.

Mr Fletcher says for the time being there are limitations.

PAUL FLETCHER: That village for example might be on a road that's, where you've had 50 or 100 kilometres of no coverage, you know get to a village that has coverage. So it is part of the overall mix of steps that can be taken and are being taken under the Abbott Government with the support of operators like Telstra and Vodafone to improve mobile coverage in regional and remote Australia.

MICHAEL CAVANAGH: It's still a long way to improving though; there's a text that was going out today to the people in Dalton saying 'hi, you in one of our new 4G-only areas, as this is a data only service, you may not be able to make voice or emergency calls.'

And there was a lot of emotion today at the meeting about emergency calls.

PAUL FLETCHER: Emergency calls are a very important issue in terms of mobile coverage, it's one of the first issues that people raise is response to emergencies, farm accidents, car accidents, bushfires, floods and so on.

Now the important thing is that particular text message you've just read out is the standard text message that Telstra issues to anybody who's in the coverage radiance of one of these 4G mini base stations. Because at the moment they deliver data and they deliver SMS, internet access and so on; they don't deliver voice unless you choose to use an over the top voice application like Skype, in which case you can get voice coverage.

Very importantly, within a few months there will be voice over 4G, or voice over LTE as it's called, so even that issue will go away.

MICHAEL CAVANAGH: For Leslie Bush, who has a property 2.5 ks from the town, things won't be improving.

LESLIE BUSH: I was expecting more coverage. I don't think 200-300 metres is a lot. I know it's an interim fix, for the people around this area, it has been a long, long time coming, especially with internet services.

Like I said I'm 2.5 ks from town, the only access we have is satellite service. We went from 80GB a month download to $100, you know and now we're down to 50GB a month for $100. So were actually paying a lot more for a lot less.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Leslie Bush, a farmer just outside the tiny hamlet of Dalton in southern New South Wales.

That report from Michael Cavanagh.

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