Many of us living on the Mid North Coast have experienced poor mobile service and internet connection for years — if not decades — depending on how long you’ve lived in the area.

This week, the Mid North Coaster sat down with Independent candidate for Cowper, Caz Heise, to find out more about her plan for a connectivity strategy, available grants, and the importance of eliminating black spots in our bushfire and flood prone region.

📵 No signal

I grew up in South West Rocks, and as soon as a mobile phone entered my life I realised just how difficult actually using it was going to be. I remember sitting on a windowsill at all times to make sure I had enough reception to receive a text or call. When I did need to have a phone conversation, I often had to press my phone (and head) against the fly screen and not move an inch to avoid reception cutting out.

If I wanted to talk on the phone outside, I had to stand on one part of the gutter like a statue.

Nowadays, It’s not too different. At my childhood home, I still find myself walking up and down the verandah to get signal.

I live in Crescent Head now but things aren’t much better. Phone conversations are hard to have — which makes working from home stressful! — and I don’t get any reception at all while driving on Crescent Head Road. There’s little-to-no reception on the Pacific Highway in our area.

Here is a pattern a lot of people on the Mid North Coast are probably familiar with:

🌧️ If it’s raining – expect lost connection.
🏄 If it’s holiday period – expect lost connection.
💨 If it’s windy – expect lost connection.

You know what it’s like.

Last week, we reported on the top priorities of Nationals MP Pat Conaghan and his biggest challenger, Independent Caz Heise. Both are running for the seat of Cowper at the upcoming Federal Election.

One of Heise’s commitments was to ensure reliable, fast internet and eliminate mobile black-spots across the region.

I sat down with the Independent candidate on Tuesday to find out more.

🗼 Heise says we must build more mobile towers

While door-knocking through the Mid North Coast with her campaign volunteers, Heise says one concern that continued to come up was connectivity.

“Mobile phone connectivity in this region is atrocious,” Heise told the Mid North Coaster.

“You cannot drive on the Pacific Highway between Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour without your phone dropping out. You cannot stand in the centre of most of our towns without there being black spots and phones dropping out.”

Heise has looked to the seat of Indi, in Victoria, as a case study. She explained the seat, which has had four terms of Independent representation (Cathy McGowan followed by Helen Haines), created a connectivity plan and mapped the parts of the region where black spots are, making it easier to identify (and fix). They then used industry and government grants to fund the construction of new phone towers.

Heise says Indi and Cowper have similar typography of mountains, valleys and plains, making it a great comparison.

Currently, the Indi area has 52 more phone towers than Cowper — and has almost eliminated the issue of black spots in the region.

📱 Using government grants to eliminate connectivity black spots

Heise said opportunity to build more mobile phone towers could be found in industry and government grants.

“The same grants have been available for everyone to access,” said Heise. “And yet no one has done that on our behalf in Cowper. No one has made a concerted effort or a strategy for the region to make sure that we also eliminate black spots so people can actually run businesses from home, they can study, they can connect to family.”

🔥 Better connection needed in case of natural disaster

Heise said the importance of reliable service is clear in times of floods and fires. The Mid North Coast is a region of natural disasters — from bushfires to floods — and poor phone reception and internet connection can be incredibly damaging.

“It’s more important than ever [during natural disasters] that we have got connectively,” said Heise. “And right now, quite frankly, we can’t count on that.”