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Barossa Gas Project: Learn more

Patchy phone service and slow internet speeds should be a thing of the past for residents of the Arcadia Valley in Queensland’s Central Highlands with Telstra installing two new 4G mobile base stations, paid for by Santos and our GLNG partners.

The first site at Castle Hill is now on air, with a second base station at Bottle Tree due to be turned on in mid-2019.

While mobile coverage can be impacted by terrain, the two new sites are expected to provide additional Telstra 3G and 4G coverage and mobile broadband services to an area covering over 500 square kilometres. Users can expect to experience increased internet speeds, availability and stability of service.

Santos Managing Director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said this is a great example of our natural gas developments bringing benefits to the communities where we operate.

“Connectivity in regional communities is so important for personal relationships, business, education, health and in emergencies.”

“Our investment in regional Australia to safely and sustainably unlock the wealth of natural gas resources not only creates jobs and local business opportunities, but lasting infrastructure investments to improve the quality of life for our communities,” Mr Gallagher said.

The Telstra communications project at Arcadia is the second Santos has undertaken in partnership with Telstra to deliver better services for our regional communities.

“The Telstra communications tower on Summerhills at Wallumbilla near Roma is already boosting mobile phone and internet coverage for residents there – a great way for our communities to share in the benefits of natural gas development,” Mr Gallagher said.

“Keeping in touch is important to all Australians and meeting demand for mobile coverage, particularly in regional Australia, is a challenging proposition for all telecommunications companies,” said Telstra’s Queensland Regional General Manager, Rachel Cliffe.

“Santos GLNG’s telecommunications initiative with Telstra is a really positive idea for helping connect local communities and I look forward to seeing the benefits these new sites will deliver,” Ms Cliffe said.

Santos and our GLNG partners, PETRONAS, Total and KOGAS, will invest more than A$400 million in the 137-well Arcadia gas project in the Bowen Basin, creating up to 300 construction jobs and local business opportunities in the Central Highlands region.