A mobile base station has been switched on in the community of Amata, 115 kilometres south of Uluru, giving the town’s 300 residents mobile phone access for the first time.
Community leader and local elder Sammy Lyon said it was a good day for residents.
“The people in this community, they’re happy,” he said.
“They’re ringing family, they’re talking and happy.”
The Telstra base station was built under the federal government’s mobile phone black spot program, and is the first of six towers to be rolled out in South Australia’s remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands.
Mark Bolton, a general manager with Telstra in South Australia, says the community will benefit with greater access to services.
“Having the community have access to education, information, health, banking, even just connecting with family and friends is really important,” he said.
“These are very commercially challenging to build, so Telstra has partnered with the federal government to make this co-investment work, and make this tower a reality.”
A mobile base station has been switched on in the community of Amata. Source: Getty Images
Dealing with issues that 'creep in'
Towns in the APY lands are generally closed to visitors, and though there are landlines and some publicly accessible internet-connected computers in Amata, digital exposure has been limited.
Indigimob Project Manager Metta Young says the sudden availability of mobile phone services can be challenging to remote communities.
The organisation is part-funded by Telstra to teach internet skills to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
“Most Aboriginal people have mobile phones, and when the internet goes on in the community, it is fabulous, because all of a sudden they don’t have to travel or get in the car to go and see someone, they can connect by messenger,” she said.
“But sometimes, a whole lot of issues creep in.”
“All of a sudden we get a bit of bullying creep in online, or we… don’t know how to turn off our automatic updates, and all of our prepaid credit gets used up as soon as we’re in range, and it’s going to cost us a lot more, which can be difficult when your income is pretty small.”
Principal of Amata Anangu School, Sharon Diglio, says teachers have been preparing for the possibility of issues such as cyber bullying.
“Policies will be in place, and we’ll talk to community, we’ll talk to governing council, we’ll talk to the children and hopefully if there are issues, we’ve either already worked out the answers, or we’ll do that together. “
Telstra SA general manager Mark Bolton said the organisation would continue to engage with community leaders.
“We invest a lot of time, like we’ve done at the launch, making sure the right information [is available] and that the community is educated,” he said.
Amata elder Sammy Lyon said it was too early to know how the community would be affected.
“The people using [mobile phones] today, they’re happy, and I don’t know, maybe a couple of years, maybe a couple of months, they change, maybe a little bit bad,” he said. “Or maybe good.”
A further five towers are expected to be built across the APY lands by March 2018, bringing 3G and 4G services to Indulkana, Fregon, Mimili, Ngarutjara Homeland and Pipalyatjara.
The author travelled to Amata with support from Telstra.
