Telcos await mobile roaming D-Day

RURAL Australians struggling with unreliable mobile coverage are waiting with baited breath for a decision which could put a stop to mobile drop outs. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims will this week make a ruling on enforced sharing of mobile tower infrastructure. 

If domestic mobile roaming is introduced, mobile users in the bush could access reception through another operator’s network when outside of the coverage area of their own carrier. Their smart devices would seamlessly dart between carriers to maintain a connection.

Instead of having multiple towers in one area, telcos would be obliged to share.

The issue has been investigated by the ACCC twice already but has failed to get the go ahead. Now, with mobile phone usage at record levels, mobile roaming could change the game.

It’s been a nervous wait for rival telcos Telstra and Vodafone which have been on a war footing since the inquiry was launched by the ACCC in September. 

Telstra, with a stranglehold on the regional market, is fiercely opposed roaming. Optus, too, rejects the idea. 

Telstra says it won’t build mobile towers for its competitors to piggyback. It has also argued roaming would congest the mobile network.

Vodafone is hungry to expand its footprint into regional Australia and has campaigned hard for roaming. It says infrastructure sharing delivers better value for Australian taxpayer who are contributing $220 million through the Mobile Black Spot Program.

Vodafone says the measure will drive competition in the regions.

Telstra’s skepticism of its rival has been fulled by the fact Vodafone has previously opposed roaming in some international markets where it enjoyed a majority. 

The issue divides rural leaders. State and national farm groups have backed roaming but key National Party members haven’t, warning against any move that would jeopardise investment in regional telecommunications infrastructure.