August 8, 2017
Member for Maranoa David Littleproud has slammed Optus, labelling as “a smokescreen” its $1 billion promise to improve mobile phone coverage in the bush.
“Optus announced it will spend $1 billion and build 500 new towers in rural and remote parts of Australia – this amount is a smokescreen because out of these ‘new towers’, 114 are co-funded by the Federal Government’s Mobile Phone Black Spot Program,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Of the remaining 386 towers, only one tower at Kingaroy will be funded by Optus in my electorate (which covers) more than 42 per cent of rural Queensland, so these claims are a total stretch.
“According to Optus’s list, Maroochydore, Toowoomba and Highfields are considered rural and remote Australia.
“This is all about picking commercial winners and not about investment to increase coverage.”
Mr Littleproud said reshaping the Universal Service Obligation (USO) – the obligation placed on service providers to ensure that telephone services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis, wherever they reside or carry on business – would provide a better service in rural areas.
“We need to not only achieve the right technology mix to guarantee better mobile and phone services across rural and remote Australia, but also provide a long-awaited kick-start to domestic mobile roaming opportunities,” he said.
“Under the USO, almost $300 million is provided each year for landlines, including $40 million for payphone services. In regions with no mobile phone coverage, landline connections must be protected but the local payphone box is now a service that’s basically obsolete.
“That’s why I believe we should look towards a pragmatic and sensible review of USO funding to include baseline mobile service and landline obligations to rural Australians.
“I believe that any future USO funding should be spent on either building new towers or upgrading existing mobile phone towers to provide seamless mobile phone coverage across Australia.
“Mandating roaming would also demand greater contributions to the USO fund from other telcos to contribute to the continual expansion and upgrade of mobile services while providing telco provider competition, finally giving rural Australian a choice.”
In a 20-year agreement between the Federal Government and Telstra – with a value of about $3 billion until 2032 – the USO requires every Australian to have access to telephone services, both fixed line and pay phone.
“There’s a lack in transparency as Telstra’s used this long-standing agreement with the government to treat every fixed-line customer as a USO connection – even when the connection is commercially viable, regardless of whether it was in Brisbane or Birdsville,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Telstra’s recently taken out full-page ads in my local media, spruiking its so-called ‘rural investment’ but those who I speak to on the street say they see through the flash marketing campaign because it isn’t being felt on the ground with better mobile phone coverage.
“In this expensive marketing campaign, Telstra said it will invest $350 million over the next three to five years but has failed to provide any specific information on where this investment will be made.
“My office is also inundated with Telstra coverage complaints, and these are just claims by Telstra in an attempt to placate bush customers.
“To me, Telstra and Optus are just updating their existing footprint, rather than increasing coverage in areas with no service.
“Telstra has already said it won’t invest in areas with no coverage unless it receives funding under the Federal Government’s Mobile Phone Black Spot Program.
“The Productivity Commission has already said, in its draft report, there’s a strong case to review the USO obligations, including the lack of transparency or accountability from Telstra in the way it’s using that money.
“I see this as an opportunity to open up the market place for consumers – particularly regional, rural and remote customers.”
