Regional communities have raised concerns it will take more deaths and injuries in country areas before governments take calls for more funding to fix mobile black spots seriously.

Key points: No new money in federal budget to finish fixing 6,000 mobile black spots in Australia

No new money in federal budget to finish fixing 6,000 mobile black spots in Australia Telecommunications reviewer says stories of death and injury are becoming too common

Telecommunications reviewer says stories of death and injury are becoming too common 70 pc of Australian land mass without coverage

70 pc of Australian land mass without coverage Black spots remain just 30 minutes' drive from Canberra

The Coalition is already working with telecommunications companies to fix at least 3,000 points without coverage through its $160-million Mobile Black Spot program, but there was no new money in this week's budget to finish the job.

One of the country's 6,000 black spots is in the small historic Victorian town of Walhalla, where local hotelier Michael Leaney said dodgy reception had become a major safety risk.

"In recent times we've had a number of emergencies in the village where we've had to make contact with the ambulance and police, and lack of mobile phone service has really restricted our ability to react to those incidents," he said.

"Not so recently I've predicted that this would actually result in a death in Walhalla."

Last month, a visiting tour bus driver collapsed from a suspected heart attack and rolled seven metres down an embankment.

Nobody at the scene had mobile reception and Mr Leaney had to run back and forth between his hotel landline and the accident site, including a scramble up a steep hill, to relay information to emergency services.

"There was about a 10-minute delay between asking a question and getting a response," he said.

Michael Leaney says funding for Walhalla may have been knocked back because of its small population. ( Landline )

Walhalla is surrounded by steep hills and it is almost impossible to get a signal, even though the nearest tower is just five kilometres away.

The town applied for funding through the first round of the Mobile Black Spot program but was knocked back.

Mr Leaney said he thought that was because the permanent population was too small.

"Walhalla has 16 permanent residents," he said.

"[But] we have about 300 landholders who have weekend cottages in town and we attract over 120,000 visitors a year.

"We lose many opportunities not only from the visitor experience but also in business just being able to communicate with the outside world."

Telstra said in a statement that some locations were "very hard to reach due to their distance from existing infrastructure, the surrounding terrain and the difficulty in getting fibre and power to the base station".

Stories of injury and death becoming 'too common'

Georgie Somerset, who helped write a national review of regional telecommunications, said stories of people being injured or dying in areas where they could not contact emergency services had become too common.

"I think it's the unknown. You know, if we'd been able to get help sooner, would that have made things better? So there's a sense of guilt, there's a sense of frustration," she said.

"And I think some of these things are driving people's determination that we're going to change the way we invest in infrastructure in the future."

Her review last year found that telecommunications companies and governments were spending more on fixing black spots, but 70 per cent of the country still did not have coverage.

She said the Mobile Black Spot program was a success but that the funding did not always go the areas that needed it most.

"I think state and federal and some local governments contributing assets ... We need to go to target local issues and come up with a response that meets the needs of those communities," she said.

Black spots just 30 minutes from Canberra

Mobile black spots are a major issue everywhere from farms to highways to within a stone's throw of the nation's capital.

Naomi Robertson lives less than 30 minutes' drive from Canberra and cannot get mobile reception inside her home or in her garden.

"If I were bitten by a snake or fell and was immobilised and my phone didn't work, I could lie there for a long time before anyone found me," she said.

Aside from safety risks, the lack of connection makes day-to-day chores extremely difficult for her.

She has to run 350 metres up her driveway and back every time she needs to receive a pin number through a government or banking website.

"I have to run up the driveway waving the phone and run back and try and get to the computer before the pin expires. I tell people that Telstra is my personal trainer," she said.

Government not speculating on future funding

Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash would not speculate on future funding for the Mobile Black Spot program, but the ABC has learned there is money available.

She said investment so far had been significant and well received.

"We can't as the Government roll out mobile services from one side of the country to the other, right across the nation. It's just physically impossible to do that," she said.

"I'm not going to speculate on any future decisions around any future funding rounds but only to say that we do recognise that this is really important to people in rural and regional areas."

Labor is still working on its plan to get better mobile coverage for regional areas, but locals like Mr Leaney and Mrs Robertson are pushing for it to become an election priority.