Slightly bigger than a washing machine, small cells are used now to boost coverage inside heavily-trafficked areas such as shopping centres and office blocks.

But their small size and short range also makes them ideal to service isolated towns where big base stations aren’t economically feasible. 

Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has welcomed new 4G small cell technology in villages including Binalong as ‘another breakthrough’ for communities with poor internet.

“We haven’t got to everyone yet, but we’re working very, very hard to fix slow internet speeds and poor mobile reception. There’s a whole series of different technologies that have to be deployed across rural Australia in order to get everybody good internet and good mobile phone coverage – satellite, fixed wireless towers and the fibre rollout. There’ve been significant wins for Hume.”

Mr Taylor was in Dalton on Monday with Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Paul Fletcher and Member for Goulburn Pru Goward to hear from Telstra about ‘small cell’ 4G internet now activated in a number of villages including Dalton and Binalong.

Telstra’s General Manager Chris Taylor said small cells worked in tiny communities, like Binalong, where there was no base station and a centrally located Telstra exchange.

“The small cell is only just being rolled out across Australia. It’s fixed to an existing exchange building, providing 4G data capacity (with speeds of up to 30 megabits per second), to about a 600 metre wide area. It will be expanded to voice in the next little while.”

Angus Taylor said Binalong would also be receiving a new mobile phone base station, one of 18 going up across Hume.

Binalong resident and small business owner Camilla Duffy welcomed the news.

“Mobile phones are a primary form of communication. I know that the motel and hotel have both lost significant business to Yass and Harden due to the lack of a Telstra service in town. A Telstra tower will be a great asset to the village,” she said.