The parliamentary inquiry into co-investment in regional mobile carrier infrastructure heard a wide range of evidence from state and territory governments, Indigenous communities and First Nations media, business chambers, councils, health services, mine companies, tourism operators, farmers and agri-business, fire, police and emergency services and community groups on how essential mobile coverage is, and how detrimental a lack of coverage can be for day to day life and operations. The Committee also heard how perilous these mobile black spots can be during emergencies, police operations or road accidents in regional areas.

Recommendations made by the Committee focused on how the Australian Government can encourage more co-investment by mobile network operators and sharing of mobile towers to address the challenges of improving coverage and competition across Australia’s wide expanse, including:

• developing and implementation of a practical universal service obligation for mobile telecommunications service providers;
• facilitating roundtable meetings between NBN Co and mobile telecommunications industry representatives with Rewiring the Nation program planners to ascertain the potential to co-locate telecommunications infrastructure along renewable electricity transmission routes planned for regional and remote Australia;
• establishing a working group involving state and territory governments, emergency services agencies, and mobile network operators to develop protocols for temporary roaming arrangements in declared disasters and emergencies;
• reviewing the implications of non-use and area-wide licensing for the allocation, management, and use of spectrum for the provision of regional telecommunications services;
• assessing the merits of including licence conditions on mobile network owners and other spectrum licensees of terms and conditions that mandate open access and active sharing solutions;
• evaluating the objectives and guidelines of the Mobile Black Spot Program to ensure it remains fit for purpose.