Baranduda, Chiltern, Glenrowan, Milawa, Rutherglen, Springhurst, Wangaratta South and Yackandandah are in line for improvements from towers which will be erected to serve about 1700 premises.

According to NBNCo the towers have been approved for construction by the councils and will be operational in the second half of next year.

The member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, hailed the move as “great news for householders who want better internet speeds, and small business owners needing improved capability to be able to promote and grow their enterprises”.

“This is delivering on my election commitment to work with the government to fix the telecommunications problems in Indi,” Ms McGowan said.

“My office is constantly receiving calls from the public wanting to know what the full rollout plan is for Indi.”

Ms McGowan said there had been a low take-up of NBN in some areas because of the need for greater knowledge of how to access it through retailers and also its provision of the right products for consumers.

“There’s a whole swath of areas that haven’t got broadband at all and that’s what the NBN is about, but they have to go and get their plans,” Ms McGowan said.

The independent MP said she was pushing for telecommunications companies, such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, to jointly locate transmission equipment at the NBN towers, but had not had great success.

Ms McGowan said the cost of linking cables to towers was a deterrent to telcos such as Telstra.

She said she wanted to encourage local councils to bring phone companies and NBNCo together to share sites.

Indigo Council chief executive Gerry Smith said there were plans for colocated towers at Rutherglen, Kiewa, Yackandandah, Chiltern and Allans Flat.

He said the council was happy to “facilitate” negotiations between phone companies and NBNCo.

The installation of more NBN towers will not affect the positioning of three mobile phone blackspot transmitters which have been earmarked for Indi, Ms McGowan said.

“Split up NBN” — page 15