Eliminating hundreds of mobile phone back spots, the bugbear of regional Australians, is the focus of a $60 million coalition promise.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the commitment in the Victorian coastal town of Anglesea, in the Liberal marginal seat of Corangamite.
Regional Communications Minister Fiona Nash said improving connections would help small businesses and ordinary people. "Our farmers are now downloading YouTube instructions to fix machinery and sitting in their lounge rooms or their utes using their mobile phones to run their irrigation systems," she told reporters alongside Mr Turnbull.
"Innovation is not just a city word or a city thing, innovation is happening out in our regions consistently as well."
Four communications black spots across the electorate - in Anglesea, Bell Bay and Birragurra - are among 900 across the country in line for funding under the program.
The announcement brings to $220 million the total coalition spend to fix mobile phone black spots.
Tony Abbott initiated the program with a $100 million promise during the 2013 election campaign.
Some 6000 black spots have been nominated for fixing and about half have been addressed so far.
Vodafone says the funding will start to address the black-spot mobile class divide between cities and rural and regional Australia.
