Roy wants better mobile coverage

Local Member for Barwon Roy Butler Photo TWH

Member for Barwon Roy Butler has gone into bat for better mobile phone and internet coverage for communities in his electorate.

Mr Butler has criticised a plan announced by the State government to invest more than $400 million in improving connectivity under the $4.2 billion Snowy Hydro Legacy Fund.

The program is focused on eliminating mobile black spots and investigating new and emerging technologies to future-proof mobile coverage in regional NSW.

But Mr Butler said the program will be carried out in Wagga Wagga and Dubbo – areas where he said there was already better connectivity than in many towns in the Barwon electorate.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Mr Butler said.

“The government has chosen populated areas with reliable phone networks.

“When they look at the west and the distances involved it goes into the too hard basket but that won’t stop me from saying that my communities in Barwon have just as much right and need for digital connectivity as towns with 20-40 thousand people.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.