Cellphone coverage at TECT All Terrain Park could be vastly improved, following a joint meeting of Western Bay of Plenty District and Tauranga City Councils yesterday.
The TECT All Terrain Telecommunications Project was presented to the councils to inform the Joint Governance Committee that cellular telephone coverage at the park was almost non-existent and this posed a problem for users wishing to summon assistance in an emergency - a bar to future commercial development of the park.
A committee agenda stated a bid to the Vodafone Community Cell Tower Scheme failed when Vodafone removed all funding for the scheme and mothballed it.
The committee was now considering applying for the Government's recently announced Mobile Black Sport Fund and the Rural Broadband Initiative.
It was recommended to the councils they approve the transfer of funds from the current financial year to the 2015/16 financial, to assist in the funding of a cellphone tower as part of the wider Western Bay of Plenty Enablement Plan.
