Transgrid, Lumea add mobile signal boosters to transmission towers

Transgrid and Lumea will install “up to 10” mobile boosters on electricity transmission towers along the route of its HumeLink project in regional NSW.

Image credit: Transgrid

HumeLink is a new 500kV transmission line to connect Wagga Wagga, Bannaby and Maragle, and is billed by Transgrid as “one of the state’s largest energy infrastructure projects”.

Mobile signal boosters are being installed along the 365km corridor, which Transgrid said would benefit “residents, businesses, motorists, tourists and emergency services” and address “longstanding blackspots”.

So far, boosters have been installed at Myrtleville and Chatsbury in the Upper Lachlan Shire and 

Wyangle in the Snowy Valleys Council area. 

“We’ve heard consistently from landholders and communities along the HumeLink alignment that poor mobile reception is a real challenge, so improving connectivity has been a priority for us,” HumeLink project director Jeremy Roberts said in a statement.

Roberts said that transmission towers “provide the height, power supply and geographic reach needed to support telecommunications equipment.”

Transgrid said that the boosters “capture mobile network signals from up to 20km away and redirect them to nearby communities up to a three-kilometre radius, depending on terrain.”

The company said that “early testing at the first installed sites has already recorded mobile download speeds of around 30Mbps, delivering reliable connectivity in areas that previously experienced no reception.”