SA WILL receive just 11 of the 499 new mobile phone base stations being constructed under the federal government's $100 million Mobile Black Spot Program.
That compares with 144 in NSW, 130 in WA, 110 in Vic, 68 in Qld, 31 in Tas and five in the NT. The SA government's failure to contribute funding to the program is being blamed for the state's poor result.
"SA's failure to contribute to the mobile phone base stations fund will result in SA receiving just 2 per cent of the new phone towers to be constructed in Australia, despite making up 12.7pc of Australia's land mass," Stuart MP Dan van Holst Pellekaan said.
The federal funding was supplemented by commitments from other state governments - $32m from WA, $24m from NSW, $21m from Vic, $10m from Qld, and $350,000 from Tas, as well as about $1.7m from local governments, businesses and community groups.
"The publicly available selection criterion makes clear those applications that have state government co-contributions would make the applications' business case stronger," Barker MP Tony Pasin said.
The government said successful locations were chosen following a competitive selection process in which mobile network operators were asked to nominate sites where they would build new or upgraded base stations to serve black spot areas nominated by the public.
In a statement to Stock Journal, Public Sector Minister Susan Close said the prime responsibility for telecommunications sat with the federal government and with the commercial operators in that sector.