It may take just over twelve months to get their money back but Telstra said it's still not profitable to provide a mobile phone tower to the people of Eromanga in western Queensland.

As the world continues to get excited by the on-going developments of smart phones, residents in Eromanga would settle for a device that could get enough coverage to make a single phone call.

Town locals were hopeful a mobile phone tower may be considered for the town when recent census results revealed the population was registered as 453 on the 2011 census night up from 172 in 2006.

Telstra spokesperson, Nigel Beaman, however says it's not in the commercial interest of the telecommunications provider to erect a tower.

"It's not just done on a raw population number there is a commercial reality that has to happen with phones and phone coverage... it also needs to be a commercially responsible investment we have to make with these things.

"At the very basics you're looking at roughly $300,000 to $400,000 on average to build a mobile phone tower.

"If you work that through and just do the basic maths of it... if you had 400 people on a $80 plan it's going to take a heck of a lot of time to pay back," said Mr Beaman.

But going on those figures from Mr Beaman a tower costing $400,000 to construct would take just 12.5 months to pay back.

Mr Beaman said there is more for Telstra to consider than simply the population of a town.

"There's no such magic number like that, it's a lot more complex like most of these things are," he said.

Local campaign

Romana Marriage, from the Eromanga District Community Association, said there we're genuine concerns from within the community on the risks associated with not having mobile coverage.

"Safety is the paramount issue of this.

"For the people that are travelling that break down, that have accidents and we do have accidents in this area.

"Sadly a lady passed away in an accident and her friend had to walk several kilometres with blistered feet to get help.

"Safety is really a big issue out here because there are no doctors on hand so your first port of call is to a Royal Flying Doctor Service," she said.

Romana has been lobbying for a tower for several years and said she had previously been told the town only needed to reach a population of 150.

The recent census suggests Eromanga would have met the requirement.

"The numbers are great there's looking like about 400 odd people around the area on that night and that includes your tourists, visitors to the area, industry oil people... and there are hundreds of them that come out here so yeah we were pretty full that night," said Romana.

Queenslander anger

On ABC Local talkback callers raised their disappointment with a mobile phone tower not being provided to the town.

Pat from Gracemere said he was concerned about travelling to the region.

"I've got an $80 plan, if I'm travelling and heading out west, spending my money in Queensland, where's my coverage if my car breaks down 50 kilometres out of Eromanga?

"We've got the grey nomads and we want to promote tourism in central Queensland, we need to be nation building here - this is where the government's getting this all wrong with the coal and gas in these areas - we're not nation building," he said.

Deanne from Toowoomba said it was sad people in the country received second rate services.

"It's ridiculous and I'm very destroyed because of the fact it's the country people who made this country what it is and their hard work, their slavery and their endurance to difficult situations.

"I'm so upset about this, this morning, I really am because I know that my brother was a policeman out west for many years and he was always concerned about the lack of help for people out there and I just feel it's a small price to pay," she said.