WHILE holidaymakers still flock to the near full Copeton Dam, there have been complaints about poor mobile phone coverage in the area.

The Copeton experience is considered to be unique by many, especially now the dam is almost at full capacity (93.5 per cent) and it attracts tourists in considerable numbers but Copeton Waters manager David Allen admitted mobile phone reception was a problem.

“Mobile telephone reception is ‘only just’, if you’ve got a good car kit with a big aerial you’ll usually be right (if you are) up on the higher areas but it’s difficult at water level,” Mr Allen said.

“We do have a blue phone and a public phone, so there are alternatives, park staff are all equipped with radios in case of injury and there’s always someone in the park after hours too, but an improvement here would be a big plus,” he said.

Inverell Shire councillor, David Jones, said he has agreed with that assessment for some time and has been chasing funding approval for two new telecommunications towers at Fig Tree Hill and White Rock that would solve the problem.

In a submission to the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee in September last year Cr Jones sought funding to the tune of $1.15 million per tower, which would improve mobile coverage not only to Copeton Waters but throughout the whole area.

“The proposed (Fig Tree) tower site…will serve the Inverell to Bundarra Road from a point 7km south of Inverell to a point 27km south of Inverell uninterrupted, the Gilgai to Tingha Road and will serve the townships of Tingha, Gilgai and Stannifer, and the whole of the foreshores of Lake Copeton, an estimated total population of 2,200 plus the 100,000 annual visitors at Lake Copeton.,” Cr Jones said.

“Lake Copeton is in a blind spot from all installed mobile phone transmitters, being located in a valley with a rim of high ground all around it,” he said.

Senator John Williams said he agrees with Cr Jones.

“David Jones has done some great work over several years on this sort of thing and now that Copeton is over 90 per cent full we can expect higher numbers of people to visit this area again,” Senator Williams said.

© 2012 Inverell Times

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