For more than 40 years, Norm Chapman has relied on Telstra to keep him connected.
Key points:
- The deal between Telstra and TPG would allow the companies to share infrastructure in regional areas
- Optus has opposed the deal, warning of a monopoly in rural parts of Australia
- The ACCC is expected to make a decision on the deal in December
He’s worked in some strange places over the decades on a trawler and as a truckie, but Mr Chapman said he used to get a mobile phone signal wherever he was in Australia.
Now retired, the pensioner struggles to get two bars of reception, despite living only a few hundred meters from a mobile phone tower at Captains Mountain, about 220 kilometers west of Brisbane.
“I got a text message sent to me at 8:30 yesterday morning. I received it at about 9 o’clock last night,” he said.
“We’ve got our fire brigades — they all run into trouble when we’ve got no tower and no power, we’ve got nothing.”
Game changer
A proposed deal between two of Australia’s biggest telecommunications companies could change that.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is considering a proposal that would allow Telstra and TPG Telecom to share mobile phone infrastructure covering more than 1.5 million square kilometers and 17 percent of Australia’s population.
Telstra and TPG Telecom said the deal would be the “first of its kind” in Australia, allowing Telstra to access under-utilized spectrum in regional areas.
Greater access to spectrum, which is the radio frequencies that wireless signals travel over, would allow Telstra to offer faster services in regional areas.
The deal would also give TPG access to infrastructure it lacked in regional areas.
The two companies believed the deal, if approved, would save costs, improve services, and increase competition in regional areas.
There are also plans to close some mobile phone towers, but only in areas where Telstra and TPG towers overlap each other.
TPG Telecom said the deal would be “game changing” for regional Australia, giving people access to another mobile service provider.
“TPG’s more than 5 million mobile customers on its … mobile brands will be able to make calls and use their phones in remote areas where they have no connectivity today,” said spokesperson Mitchell Bingemann.
“They will also get faster access to 5G services than would otherwise be achievable.”
Mr Bingemann said the deal was the most sensible way to boost competition in areas where it was not commercially viable to duplicate infrastructure.
Competition threat
Optus, which controls about 24 percent of the Australian market, has warned of higher prices and poorer services for regional Australia if the deal is approved.
The company has also threatened not to invest any further in regional areas if the proposal is approved, saying it would lead to a communications monopoly in regional areas.
The Wylahra Grove Progress Association, which covers Captains Mountain, is worried a lack of competition could prolong the region’s communications woes.
Secretary Roselle Crellin said mobile and internet services were failing to keep up with a recent influx of residents.
She said Telstra had promised an upgrade to the local phone tower in 2023, but that was too far away for people who needed it for things like online study.
“Competition usually sparks everyone up no matter what industry and when we have no competition, I can’t see a way forward for improving things,” Ms Crellin said.
“We have been asking for such a long time now to have this service looked at.”
Worsening service
Nationals’ leader and the federal member for Maranoa, David Littleproud, also remains unconvinced about the proposed deal.
A long-time critic of Telstra and its former chief executive Andy Penn, Mr Littleproud said he was worried it would result in worse services for the bush, including areas such as Captains Mountain.
“If you think these two companies merging into one, cutting down 725 mobile phone towers across the country, is going to be any better, you’re living in La La Land,” Mr Littleproud said.
“There is no regulatory requirement on them to maintain the towers to a standard that gives them the scope that they should have.”
The ACCC is expected to decide on the deal in early December, after seeking further information in September.
University of Queensland lecturer Barbora Jedlickova said the competition watchdog had a difficult task in assessing the application.
“[The ACCC needs to] make sure certain services are accessible in remote parts of Australia and, at the same time, you do want to encourage competition … in those spots,” Dr Jedlickova said.
“But that’s the tricky part.”
For Norm Chapman, there was little faith in the proposed deal.
After a price increase for his mobile phone service, despite a lack of services, promises from the telecommunications giant did not mean much.
“Telstra are saying they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that. They’re gunnas and nothing happens,” he said.
.