In what is a big win for regional Australians, the ACCC will consider the case to regulate wholesale mobile services to ensure improved outcomes for customers in the regions.
The ACCC will examine whether to mandate access to mobile infrastructure and domestic mobile roaming, which would allow customers with no mobile connectivity to ‘roam’ onto another carrier’s network.
In doing so, the competition regulator will consider if it should determine the regulated price and non-price terms between mobile network operators (MNOs) for such access, should those operators not be able to reach a commercial agreement.
Recognising the growing calls to intervene to regulate wholesale mobile services particularly in the regions, the ACCC’s inquiry will run for 12 months with a strong focus on the importance of mobile coverage, provider choice and network reliability, particularly for people living, working and travelling in regional areas.
Other matters to be investigated include:
- how mobile coverage and consumer needs are changing, particularly in regional and remote areas;
- the current state of competition in the supply of mobile services and how the proposals may affect competition;
- whether consumers have meaningful choice between mobile providers;
- how regulation could affect investment in mobile networks; and
- the role of new direct-to-device low earth orbit satellite services and their potential impact on investment, competition and consumer outcomes in the Australian mobiles market.
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, Anne Webster, said she had personally advocated for mandatory domestic roaming for rural, regional, and remote Australians.
“Regional Australians have put up with substandard telecommunications for far too long. They know, as they face natural disasters and the tyranny of distance getting to health services, mandatory domestic roaming is needed as part of our critical telecommunications infrastructure. Instead, Labor has left us high and dry,” Dr Webster said.
