Telcos warn - Tassie planning rules could inhibit mobile coverage

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 21 February 2010 06:56

IT Policy - Regulation

The Mobile Carriers Forum (MCF) - the body representing Australia's cellular network operators - has written to the Tasmanian Government warning that its planning rules could see the carriers winding back network upgrade plans.

According to MCF, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) between them have plans to add 39 new cell sites in Tasmania to the 418 they already have, the representing an investment of more than $15 million, but difficulties in obtaining planning permission for new sites could mean some of these do not get installed.

"Many new sites in remote areas offer a marginal business case so are regularly reviewed as a part of each carrier's national programme," MCF program manager, Matt Evans, said.

"It is critical that Tasmania's planning system strikes an appropriate balance between the need for some certainty by the carriers, and the need to protect visual amenity."

The MCF last week presented its case to the Tasmanian Planning Commission calling for an easing of planning restrictions for the approval of mobile network antennas and towers.

In September 2009, the Tasmanian Government released a draft planning directive, which included a list of the types of mobile network telecommunications facilities that would not require a planning permit from Tasmania's local councils.

MCF welcomed the approach for creating uniformity across the state, but said that the directive did not provide any further exemptions from planning permission from those already found in most of Tasmanian Council planning schemes, and meant that the state had rules more restrictive than elsewhere in Australia.

In November MCF says it wrote to the Tasmanian Government "identifying potential lost opportunities in its draft directive to fast-track approval of certain types of mobile network telecommunications facilities that have a negligible impact," and which, it said, "have been included in planning policy in other states for as long as 10 years."