THE Liberal Party candidate for Indi is lobbying for North East centres to be involved in a trial of a new NBN satellite.
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Sophie Mirabella said she had spoken to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull about using parts of the North East in testing of the satellite which is due to be launched in October.
The NBN’s first dedicated satellite – named Sky Muster – aims to provide download speeds of up to 25 megabits per second to 200,000 premises in remote areas.
Mrs Mirabella said she had flagged with Mr Turnbull the possibility of Beechworth, Stanley and Whitfield being in the trial.
Testing is due to run through until at least May 2016.
“Whitfield is a prime example of a regional area with poor mobile phone and internet reception,” Mrs Mirabella said.
"It’s a small population, which swells to thousands during food and wine festivals.
"When people visiting the region send text messages or access the internet the system overloads very quickly.
"I am speaking with the minister’s office about how we support these communities during peak periods like festivals, but also how we can ensure they don’t have to wait until mid-2016 to feel confident that the satellite will improve their service.”
Mrs Mirabella said it was crucial areas such as the King Valley had communications infrastructure which met modern demands.
"It's cart and horse stuff, you've got to have the right infrastructure to build up events and build up a region,” she said.
“For wineries like Dal Zotto (where I visited on Tuesday) cellar door trade is a significant part of their turnover and profit base.
"Often their eftpos machines drop out because of the internet coverage, it impacts on their ordering systems and their general ability to operate as a small business.
"It also hampers interest in expanding businesses – it would be a great region for some more tourist accommodation, but investors are deterred by the poor internet reception.”
Mrs Mirabella said she expected a response from Mr Turnbull in coming weeks, saying she "regularly" had telephone conversations with the minister.
In the long term, Mrs Mirabella expects the NBN satellite to rocket productivity, pointing to National Farmers Federation forecasts that farm productivity could be lifted by up to nine per cent with "precision agriculture".
