Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay council has voted against offering Optus a lease for a monopole at 217 Mason Street, Altona North.
Optus plans to erect a monopole and ground equipment from Paisley Park.
The telco would pay $30,000 per year for 21 years, plus GST, with five-yearly market rent reviews and annual increases of 3 per cent.
At last week’s council meeting, councillors expressed concern about the number of monopoles in the area.
“These things are popping up like mushrooms all over the place,” Cr Peter Hemphill said.
“Financially, our officers have extracted a fairly good premium out of it but, just the same, people such as myself were concerned that there could be too many of these, particularly as there is a Telstra one not so far away.
“There needs to be co-location of these facilities because there’s some that are only a few hundred metres away that are fairly brand new as well, off Mason Street.”
Cr Tony Briffa spoke against the move.
“I am very concerned about co-location and why that isn’t happening,” she said.
“If Optus have one and Telstra have one and Vodafone have one, it would be ridiculous.
“They should just suck it up and start sharing some infrastructure and not expect the community to have all these towers all over the place.”
The proposed monopole is near a Telstra one, leased from the council.
The Telstra pole is overloaded with equipment and Telstra has made inquiries about locating equipment on the proposed new Optus pole.
Telcos are required to share space on their poles under the Telecommunications Act 1997.
