Budget 2022: $1bn boost for mobile black spots, broadband services in regions

Mobile phone black spots and sluggish broadband speeds are targets in billion-dollar spending package — but experts are calling for an even bigger upgrade.

Mobile phone coverage and broadband speeds will get a billion-dollar boost over the next six years with a package of reforms targeting communication in regional and rural areas.

The $1.3bn spend will include boosts to mobile coverage along 8000km of regional travel routes, a review of mobile tower costs to increase competition, and $480m to improve regional NBN services.

But telecommunications experts have called for the government to think bigger and overhaul Australia’s broadband service.

In his budget speech, Josh Frydenberg called the $1.3bn program an “unprecedented regional investment package”.

“These long-term investments will unlock new economic frontiers and grow our national economy,” he said.

The core measure of the budget package is an $811.8m investment in fixing “mobile black spots” along regional transport routes and poor connections affecting nearby tourism hot spots, homes and businesses.

The investment, in addition to the existing mobile black spot program, is designed to improve mobile coverage in regional areas over five years.

Another $4.8m will go towards mobile network upgrades in regional areas, while $1.8m will fund a review of mobile tower access fees by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to increase competition among providers.

Broadband services in rural and regional Australia will also receive a $480m boost in the package – in a move foreshadowed last week – to bolster download speeds and coverage on its fixed wireless network as well as satellite services.

The upgrades, which are due to be completed by the end of 2024, expand network coverage to an additional 120,000 homes and allow many users to access download speeds of 100 megabits per second.

NBN Co will contribute an additional $270m to finish the fixed wireless upgrade, even though budget papers show the organisation still owes the government $7.4bn on a $19.5bn loan established in 2016.

The announcement comes just a day after Australia dropped another four places in Ookla Speedtest’s worldwide broadband rankings to 65th position, and after Labor pledged to spend $3.2bn on NBN upgrades, including the rollout of full-fibre connections to another 1.5 million premises.

RMIT associate professor Mark Gregory welcomed federal budget upgrades to the NBN’s fixed wireless network and the government’s focus on regional Australia.

But he said politicians from all major parties should consider a larger upgrade to broadband in Australia.

“The funding that’s been announced will move the NBN forward but it’s insufficient to tackle the problem of obsolete fibre-to-the-node (copper) technology,” he said.

“It’s not acceptable for some Australians to have fibre-to-the-premises and for other Australians to have unreliable, low-performance connections.”

Independent telecommunications analyst Paul Budde also called for a “long-term plan” to be developed for the NBN’s future, rather than a series of targeted upgrades.