By Ethan Benedicto
The first few steps of improved connectivity are underway for the growth fringes of the City of Casey, as two towers as part of the Peri-Urban Mobile Project were officially announced in Clyde on Thursday 24 October.
The project, also known as PUMP, will have two towers in the Holt electorate, one in Clyde and another in Blind Bight to open in 2025, with a grand total of 12 for the growing suburbs in Casey.
Attended by Federal Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland, she said that “this is absolutely essential for every resident, everyone relies on connectivity; the people who are working from home, the students, and for accessing emergency services.”
“This is no longer a society where we rely on landlines, there would be a huge percentage of people here who would either wouldn’t be using a landline or wouldn’t know what their landline number even is.
“So it’s absolutely essential that they have connectivity, and to date, there has been very little incentive for mobile operators to come in and make sure that they’ve got connectivity before the houses come up and before people start becoming residents.”
Also present was Holt MP Cassandra Fernando, and as someone who has been advocating for these infrastructural improvements for over two years, she is more than glad to not just be a part of the announcement, but also to be able to witness it.
“When I was in pre-poll, in 2022, that (mobile connection) was one of the biggest issues, even door knocking in Clyde, Clyde North and Cranbourne East, it was one of the biggest issues that the residents bring up to me every single day,” she said.
This marks the second round of PUMP, with the two towers being delivered as part of a $40.9 million project, with the mentioned 12 towers already approved and currently undergoing community consultation.
Clyde, which falls under the peri-urban fringe, is more prone to risks of natural disasters, which previously made it difficult to deploy infrastructure due to difficult terrain, planning challenges, and lower population densities.
However, considering that Stockland Estate is looking at establishing around 1500 homes, the incentive is more present than ever.
Rowland, as part of the Connecting Victoria Campaign, has mandated that all new housing developments with 50 or more lots must consider coverage during planning.
“As a government, we are changing that, we are changing the regulatory framework to incentivise operators to come into these areas and that includes the $40 million dollar peri-urban mobile program,” Rowland said.
“We’re bringing together a good regulatory framework, good incentives, it is a challenge, but I am so pleased that as a local member, Cassandra’s been advocating so strongly for residents here.”
Waveconn, a New South Wales-based telecommunications service provider will be responsible for the future construction of the tower at Stockland, with Erin Buyers, marketing and a strategic representative from Waveconn saying that they are looking to “fastrack as many of the sites as we can”.
“It’s working with the developers with their development sites, but it’s basically ready to go, we’re just in the process of pulling together power quotes and getting it ready to build next year,” she said.
Waveconn’s CEO, Grant Stevenson said that what is clear is “the demand for these services”.
“We’ll be moving as fast as we can to make it happen.”
Buyers said that every site that they build will be optimised for all three main carriers (Optus, Telstra and Vodafone), so that “the residents have a choice”.
For the National Growth Areas Alliance, CEO Bronwen Clark sees this as a major step forward for every region, not just in Casey, but in Australia to be receiving appropriate mobile connection.
“This is really significant because it’s taken so long to deliver,” Clark said.
“We’ve got residents right across Australia in places just like in the City of Casey who are experiencing the same problem, and in 2024 mobile connectivity is an essential service.
“We’re trying to build 1.2 million homes across Australia to respond to the housing crisis, now imagine if those didn’t have mobile connectivity, where would we be?”
Looking ahead, the next few years look to hold a set of promising developments of connectivity for the growing suburbs of Casey, as the two towers for Holt mark a significant step in progress.
