Shadow Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud has welcomed a Senate committee’s report following a year-long inquiry into Triple Zero failures, which exposes major flaws in Australia’s mobile network regulatory framework, but says the Universal Service Obligation (USO) must be reformed and extended to mobile phone infrastructure if mandated roaming is to work.
Mr Littleproud said he supported the inquiry’s push for mandated roaming but warned it would be pointless without towers that are properly maintained.
“I support mandated roaming, but we need to reform the USO first so that towers are actually maintained and are made reliable. Otherwise, roaming simply won’t work,” Mr Littleproud said.
“It doesn’t matter which network you’re allowed to roam onto if the tower isn’t functioning in the first place. Roaming only works if there’s a working tower to roam onto.”
Mr Littleproud said the current USO arrangement was outdated and needed to be redirected toward what regional communities rely on today.
“The current arrangements are a joke that Telstra is getting $270 million to sit on its hands when they could be fixing infrastructure to save lives.”
“That funding should be shared with existing USO arrangements should be expanded to include minimum tower capability standards and minimum repair times with regulatory requirements and penalties for failing to meet those standards.”
Mr Littleproud said the Senate committee’s findings confirmed what regional communities had been raising for years.
“This report underlines the need for urgent action to strengthen regulation of this essential service. When someone in the bush needs to call Triple Zero, they can’t afford for the system to fail them.”
Mr Littleproud said he would continue pushing for USO reform as the first essential step toward a mobile network regional Australians can actually rely on.
“There is currently the UOMO (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) bill in the Senate, and the government could amend this bill to include these universal service obligation reforms, which would create an effective pathway for mandated roaming into the future.”
