Regional telecommunications transmission capacity
The 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit found that telecommunication services in regional Australia provide poor connectivity. Key issues include slow internet speeds, poor reliability and high prices.
There is a lack of competition to provide sufficient transmission capacity to some regional centres with lower populations. Accessing existing networks is often unaffordable for regional communities. This impacts both the value for money, capacity and quality of the transmission lines, which in turn inhibits fast and reliable internet connection.
This issue is a key contributing factor to the growing ‘digital divide’ between well connected and poorly connected areas of Australia. While there have been some improvements in market competition, many regional areas still face these issues and may not have access to future technologies such as 5G.
Access to high-speed internet provides a range of benefits, including better access to health (for example, telehealth) and education (for example, online distance education) services that are often difficult and costly to provide outside population centres.
Improved connectivity and network reliability is likely to also benefit regional firms through greater access to markets and workers. It could also increase productivity of specific industries, such as agriculture through ‘smarter’ farming practices.
The 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan identifies that telecommunications and digital infrastructure is a critical part of the regionalisation agenda, and a systemic view of regional telecommunications challenges and opportunities is therefore increasingly urgent. The Australian Government is also improving digital connectivity in the regions through the Regional Connectivity Program by providing up to $83 million in grants to deliver new or upgraded digital connectivity. The funded infrastructure will complement the NBN and the Mobile Black Spot Program.
The Infrastructure Priority List separately includes an Early-Stage Proposal for Mobile telecommunications coverage in regional and remote areas. Extending transmission capacity into regional areas can assist in enabling the construction of new telecommunication towers to address blackspots.
Potential options to address the proposal include:
- increasing shared use of the existing transmission network
- upgrading existing regional networks to allow faster digital connections
- investing in new transmission networks.
This proposal calls for program submissions that consider regional telecommunications transmission capacity improvements at a state and territory level.
We encourage relevant organisations to fully assess this problem in their respective locality, state or territory (Stage 1 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework) prior to identifying and analysing potential investment options (Stage 2 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).
Consideration should also be given to regional telecommunications content in the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan.
Refer to Infrastructure Glossary for terms and definitions.