Vodafone has apologised for misleading residents about its plans to build a new mobile phone tower in Duffy.
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Total Communications Infrastructure, acting on behalf of Vodafone, told Duffy residents in a letter it had no choice but to build the 25-metre tower near a water tank on Eucumbene Drive because there were no other options. The company did not tell residents that, in fact, it was applying separately to co-locate the Vodafone technology on an existing Telstra tower further down Eucumbene Drive, at the corner of Warragamba Avenue.
Vodafone has conceded that, should the ACT Planning and Land Authority approve its application to upgrade the existing Telstra tower, it might not have to proceed with the new tower.
A company spokesman said: ''I would say that the previous letter to residents was incorrect in its assertion that there were no viable opportunities to co-locate, and we apologise for the oversight.
''We have been very open with our community consultation process and any miscommunication was unintentional.''
However, the oversight was only revealed when Duffy resident Ron Forrester made a submission to the National Capital Authority, which has to approve new mobile phone towers in the ACT.
Mr Forrester pointed out that Vodafone had a parallel application with ACTPLA to upgrade the existing Telstra tower but had not revealed that to residents.
The letter instead said Total Communications Infrastructure's ''first priority'' was to co-locate technology on an existing facility such as a tower or light pole that wasn't possible in Duffy.
In his submission, Mr Forrester wrote: ''In our view, Vodafone is not being completely honest with the residents or the two planning authorities.''
He said the letter from the company also looked like junk mail, arriving in a plain envelope addressed to the resident. A spokesman for Vodafone said it would withdraw its application with the NCA should the upgraded tower meet its needs.
He said Vodafone wanted to upgrade the existing tower by replacing the turret and antennas at the site to provide lower frequency technology ''known to provide better indoor coverage and a wider coverage footprint, and is also designed to improve the experience, particularly for smartphone, tablet and mobile broadband customers''.
''We are hopeful that the co-located facility will satisfy our objective to improve Vodafone mobile coverage in the area and we will not proceed with building the additional site if that is the case,'' he said.
''We are currently doing some desktop reviews and may make a request to the NCA to put our application for the alternate facility on Eucumbene Drive on hold in coming days.''
The spokesman said it was ''not unusual to submit a number of DAs, then withdraw or discontinue the process if alternative arrangements are suitable''.
