For the 300-plus residents, it's inconvenient at the best of times, and during bushfire seasons the lack of reliable phone coverage poses a serious risk.

The federal opposition has promised $750,000 to fix the community's reception woes, should Labor win the federal election - and Fenner MP Andrew Leigh intends to have telcos chip in extra cash for mobile tower upgrades too.

"The plan is to co-invest along with carriers to provide better mobile signals," he said.

"We obviously hope that all carriers will jump on board, and that will mean people are able to get a good mobile signal to communicate with friends and family; it should be better for business, and of course it's crucial in emergencies."

Mr Leigh visited Wreck Bay village this week to make the announcement and meet with community members ahead of the election.

Contending with the lack of mobile reception himself, Mr Leigh opted to use a public phone for a radio interview on the issue.

He said the issue of 'patchy' mobile reception in the area was consistently raised by locals.

Their biggest concern? Emergency notices during bushfires.

"It's something that makes people nervous. When the fires came down through Booderee National Park and there was a lot of smoke blanketing the community - people are nervous about their mobile coverage, so it's an issue of safety as well as convenience," Mr Leigh said.

"This is constantly raised with me, and I've been constantly raising it with the federal government."

According to the national Mobile Black Spot Database, the Jervis Bay Territory has two known black spots. These are locations reported by the community.

One black spot is Wreck Bay village, and the second is along Cave Beach Rd.

There are more community-reported black spots in nearby communities including Old Erowal Bay, St Georges Basin, Vincentia, and Sussex Inlet; these villages are part of the Gilmore electorate.

Mr Leigh said, in his view, Jervis Bay was not on the government's radar for black spot improvements.

"[The federal government] has got a black spot program but it hasn't extended to Wreck Bay, which is really disappointing."

How are mobile black spots fixed?

The federal government has run the Mobile Black Spot Program since late 2013. Round six of the black spot program is about to start.

It has spent $380 million on the program, and extra investment has come from network operators (Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom, and Field Solution Group), state and local governments, businesses, and local communities.

The federal government selects black spots to fix based on applications from telcos, which apply for known black spot locations on the database, including community-reported locations.

When their applications are successful, telcos then build mobile base stations for the black spot areas.

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