MOBILE phone blackspots in the bush received a $25 million funding boost from the NSW government last week, but specific locations are yet to be determined.
Regional Development Minister John Barilaro announced the funding, to be distributed across four years, in Uralla last Thursday.
Previously, the federal government committed $100m to the same initiative across the country.
Phone companies including Telstra and Vodafone will provide $35 million towards the initiative.
Since 2013, more than 1800 submissions from local government, private businesses and residents have nominated 1385 mobile blackspot locations in NSW, among more than 6000 unique sites Australia-wide.
Of those, 130 successful NSW sites will be announced by the end of June.
Mr Barilaro said the program would improve coverage along major transport routes, in small communities and in locations prone to natural disasters and in unique mobile blackspot locations.
"This is the start of a process and a very good program that I think will be continually funded," Mr Barilaro said.
"We're confident every part of regional NSW will receive towers as we roll the program out."
NSW Farmers telecommunications spokesman Anthony Gibson, Nyngan, said the funding news was "fantastic".
"It's great they've been listening to our consistent calls over many years for improved mobile coverage," Mr Gibson said.
"They've listened to rural Australia.
"It won't go far enough but it's something that hasn't been done in quite some time."
Mr Gibson said of the $100m already announced in federal funding, only $80m would go to inland rural areas as about $20m was going towards coastal areas.
"That would make it two to three sites per electorate and in rural areas, that's not going to make a big difference.
"There will be some amount from the carriers plus in-kind support from communities."
Mr Gibson said a lot of existing towers were already hitting capacity and needed extra capacity to cater for increased data usage.
But he suspected telecommunications companies were hanging back to see how much money they would receive from the federal government.
"Once they start rolling out towers and see their return on investment, I hope they keep going with it (the roll-out) because telecommunications is such a growing business and they'd be mad not to invest," he said.
"If it can kick-start an investment program it would be well worth it.
"This is the most significant investment in rural communications in a long time."
Mr Gibson said in Nyngan, like many other areas, he relied on the 3G network for data.
When the system was heavily congested, telcos gave priority to phone calls so data downloads and uploads could grind to a virtual halt, he said.
Hopefully, the funding would help overcome those issues.
He said he was waiting to see the impact of the National Broadband Network on mobile phone coverage as more people moved to Wi-Fi set-ups for data.
"Part of our policy is calling for 100 per cent capacity but I realise there are certain constraints," he said.
"A lot of towns are in valleys, for instance, which is a good place to put a town, but not necessarily a good place to get coverage."
Mr Barilaro acknowledged inadequate mobile phone coverage was widespread in the state's regional areas.
"Just in my electorate we have issues in Numeralla and Dalgety," he said.
"I would hope as a local member these sites are included as part of the program."
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has Copeton Dam at the top of his list of blackspots because it had limited service despite being a popular recreational spot.
He also suggested areas around Croppa Creek, North Star, Bonshaw, Kingstown and Deepwater, and said there was a huge gap in coverage between Glen Innes and Inverell "and that's on the highway".
"Telecommunication companies will tell you they cover 99pc of population and that's true but it only represents about 20pc of the land mass," he said.
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive Teresa Corbin said the funding might not be enough to address the widespread problem of mobile black spots.
"We feel that mobile coverage has been left behind the broadband network, but a lot of people now just choose to have a mobile," she said.
"Even with all the funding from state and federal governments, we're not going to get a 100 per cent coverage of the sites that need most coverage."
Nominate your mobile blackspots at The Land
