FARMERS WELCOME NEW MOBILE COVERAGE LAWS

By Jessica Dempster

The National Farmers’ Federation has welcomed new telecommunications legislation requiring outdoor mobile coverage for customers wherever they can see the sky, but says further reforms are needed to improve regional reliability.

The Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation bill passed Parliament on October 16, with Low Earth Orbit satellite technology expected to help extend coverage in regional areas.

NFF president Hamish McIntyre says unreliable mobile services continue to affect farm productivity and can prevent Triple Zero calls from connecting during outages.

The federation has welcomed provisions requiring the minister to establish mobile network service standards, but says implementation should begin sooner than the year or more currently allowed.

The NFF also says it is disappointed that proposed mandatory domestic mobile roaming was not supported by the Government or Coalition.

The organisation will now continue pushing for roaming and other improvements through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into regional telecommunications.