The Ponds residents finally get new phone tower approved

It's new, popular and growing at warp speed but anyone who's moved into The Ponds will tell you there's one big problem: you can't make a phone call from your own home.

Phone reception is so poor, the suburb's residents, who live about 45 kilometres from the Sydney CBD, spend their time chatting on their mobiles in the street, or driving out of the suburb to get more than two bars of reception.

"Mobile reception is that bad, inside my house there is no reception at all," resident Adam Mercer said.

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"I paid $1500 for a commercial-grade phone booster just so I could work from home."

Father of two Venogopal said he'd tried Telstra, Vodaphone and Optus and reception was the same.

"I feel like I'm living on the moon," he said.

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"Everyone is walking and talking in the streets because it's our only option.

"What if I have an emergency inside the home? I'd have to run outside."

While phone carriers and Blacktown Council agreed a new phone tower is needed, Federal MP Michelle Rowland, who started a petition, said the application had been sitting with the NSW Local Government Minister for ages.

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"Residents expect that when they move into a suburb they're going to have electricity, they're going to (have) sewerage, there's going to be roads, there'll be schools and they also expect they'll have communication services including mobile," Ms Rowland said.

A Current Affair contacted the Office of Local Government, which revealed it had just "approved Blacktown City Council's request for a lease over community land at Jones Bradley Reserve".

It added, "The specific location of the tower and construction timeframes are a matter for Blacktown City Council and Optus."

Statement by a NSW Office of Local Government spokesperson

The recently appointed Minister for Local Government, Wendy Tuckerman, has now approved Blacktown City Council's request for a lease over community land at Jones Bradley Reserve, The Ponds.

The specific location of the tower and construction timeframes are a matter for Blacktown City Council and Optus.