{"id":365301,"date":"2025-09-29T15:54:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=365301"},"modified":"2025-09-29T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:54:41","slug":"mp-renews-push-for-mobile-roaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/09\/29\/mp-renews-push-for-mobile-roaming\/","title":{"rendered":"MP Renews Push For Mobile Roaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Member for Maranoa David Littleproud is repeating his call for call roaming to occur when a phone tower is out of service (Photo: Maranoa Electorate Office)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 29, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nationals Leader David Littleproud is repeating his call to reform the Universal Service Obligation for telcos following another major mobile phone outage.<\/p>\n

The Member for Maranoa said the latest Optus outage showed the vulnerability of the Triple 0 service if a mobile phone tower went down and the service did not automatically divert to another provider\u2019s tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn regional Australia, there are a large number of communities that are \u2018one tower towns\u2019, which means the 000 service is at risk daily,\u201d Mr Littleproud said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor urgently needs to reform the USO, which currently only ensures landlines and pay phones are maintained, to include mobile phone towers to protect lives in regional Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelcos and taxpayers are paying $270 million a year to maintain paid phones and landlines, why wouldn\u2019t we extend it to mobile phone towers? We need a common-sense approach and we need it immediately, before more lives continue to be put at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelcos should be required to have timeline provisions and repair towers and infrastructure within a certain time. Right now, Telcos are failing our communities and the risk of phone outages is simply too great to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Minister for Regional Communications Dr Anne Webster said regional Australia deserved the same reliable access to emergency services as metropolitan areas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, if one tower goes down, entire communities can be cut off,\u201d Dr Webster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe draft Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation legislation relies too heavily on satellite solutions, ignoring the need for on-ground redundancy.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen the tragic outcomes of the Optus failures \u2013 people unable to call for help in life-threatening situations.<\/p>\n

“An updated Universal Service Obligation must mandate network resilience, including cross-carrier roaming for Triple 0 calls and mandatory upkeep of taxpayer-funded towers from the Mobile Black Spot Program.”<\/p>\n