While residents at Ashburton's Lake Hood settlement may now have cellphone coverage, farmers on some of the most productive land to the east of Ashburton are still waiting.
Eighteen months ago, Ashburton's development agency Grow Mid Canterbury and Federated Farmers combined to survey rural landowners about their cellphone coverage. Analysis of the 1000 replies showed that from the Rakaia to the Rangitata, from the coast halfway to State Highway 1, coverage was poor or did not exist. Grow Mid Canterbury former board member David West said Telecom had added an extra sector to its Tinwald tower, which had improved coverage to Lake Hood.
''I understand they are also close to having a new tower at Pendarves and are looking at sites at Seafield,'' Mr West said.
''Telecom is making all the right noises. Just last week, they had people in our area at Wakanui.''
Representatives of Grow Mid Canterbury and Federated Farmers had met representatives from Telecom and Vodafone.
''Vodafone has said they could fix the problem but they have no money,'' Mr West said.
The lack of cellphone coverage was a major problem for farmers with a lot more opportunity to use technology for farming operations, he said
By Maurren BishopÂ