A SECOND phone tower spruiked by Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has been plagued by problems.
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Switched on in October 2018, the federal government's Mobile Black Spot program tower at Balala has left residents hung up.
Wendy Westbrook has written to Mr Joyce a number of occasions to ask why the Telstra tower was not co-located with a Rural Fire Service tower at the top of a hill.
"These are our taxes, we are putting the tower in and aren't getting the benefit," Ms Westbrook said.
"What do we have to do to get action that corrects the situation?
"We're farmers in drought spending all of our money on feed for our animals yet we don't get anything from the big corporations or the government to help us."
A Mobile Black Spot tower on mining magnate Gina Rhinehart's Kingstown property, 20 kilometres away, has been called an 'epic fail' by residents.
That tower was switched on three weeks ago, and locals are confused by the decision to locate it on Ms Rhinehart's property instead of with an existing emergency services tower.
Mr Joyce said he had spoken to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield to have the issues fixed.
"It's hundreds of thousands of dollars to put these in so they aren't cheap," he said.
"We hear their concerns, we are following it up to investigate how we can get that to work better.
"In the instances where that's not perfect it's better than what was there before which was nothing."
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Both Telstra and Mr Joyce have pointed the finger at each other for where the towers are located.
The mobile base station at Balala is providing the coverage the telecommunication giant expects it to, a Telstra spokeswoman said.
"Mobile coverage can be impacted by a variety of factors including terrain, trees, buildings and the type of handsets used," she said.
Residents with mobile reception issues are advised to contact Telstra for more information or assistance, the spokeswoman said.