The lack of decent telecommunications available to rural and regional businesses - affectionately known by some as the ‘data drought’ - will continue for the foreseeable future, despite a regulatory ruling on network competition.
In early May the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced its decision not to declare wholesale domestic mobile roaming.
Domestic mobile roaming is where companies can direct their customers’ mobile phone transmissions through another company’s towers and equipment. Telecommunication companies are already free to come to commercial arrangements with each other to share towers, but the ACCC had been considering whether it should make roaming mandatory.
In the wake of the decision, Cotton Australia reiterated its call for networks and regulators to boost telecommunications coverage in regional areas.
Let me reassure the industry that we have not forgotten that increased competition is important. However, at this point we believe it is more crucial to bolster the regional network and improve basic telecommunications services. For some growers, these basic services are not available at all.
We have not forgotten that increased competition is important.
Our fear, to date, has been that the introduction of mandatory roaming may significantly reduce a company’s incentive to invest in extending and improving the existing mobile footprint. In this environment, it is fair to say we need to crawl towards adequate coverage, accessible and reliable networks before we sprint towards the ultimate goal of full competition across a world-class system.
However, expanded coverage and increased competition are not mutually exclusive – there are other innovative levers the ACCC could pull to increase competition, such as incentivising infrastructure sharing and promoting co-investment. City dwellers and business operators in metropolitan areas take mobile phone coverage for granted, but as many growers understand, coverage in rural and regional areas is patchy or non-existent.
- Michael Murray, Cotton Australia
