Frustrated with regional comms? Here's the next shot at fixing it

Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has appointed the former WA Labor minister for regional development and former federal MP for Perth to head the three-yearly Regional Telecommunications Review.

Ms MacTiernan is politically balanced on the review by former deputy Nationals leader and Regional Education Commissioner Fiona Nash. There are also the co-founder of Better Internet for Regional, Rural and Remote Australia and 2021 review Deputy Chair Kristy Sparrow, Wiradjuri researcher and educator Dr Jessa Rogers and telecommunications consultant and advisor Ian Kelly.

Rural, regional and remote communities that have suffered poor digital connectivity are strongly encouraged to contribute to the review which will closely examine barriers to telecommunications services enjoyed in urban areas.

Ms MacTiernan expects to hear frustrations, but she insists progress has been made while also stating that technologies and capabilities are "not a fixed thing".

"This is not one of these things that's ever fixed permanently, because we are seeing the standards increase across the community. Then what's reasonable to expect obviously changes," she told ACM.

"I think it's a very positive thing that there's a review every three years because you really have to keep on top of the issues, both when there is a complete failure, but also just the reality of people's lives now, not only the Netflix part of life, but also in education.

"You really need access to good download and upload speeds to be able to participate in all of these things remotely. In telehealth, for example."

Ms MacTiernan said regional communities require sufficient standards to participate in modern digital life, but there are different rules for landlines and mobile phone coverage. A big question is whether to extend the universal service obligations to mobiles.

It is the end of the 3G era and regional communities who still rely on 3G devices fear reduced internet access as it is slowly shut down.

And there are unique needs of First Nations communities.

"The universal service obligations and whether or not they're still fit for purpose is clearly an issue. So that's one of the things that I think it's important for us to have a look at," she said.

She described three key areas of focus for the review: cost of access to services, technology trade-offs as new products and services emerge, and resilience in the system in times of emergency.

"I think the issue of hardening the system," she said. "There's an increasing awareness of the nature of extreme weather events that have been occurring and probably really intensifying over the last three to four years. So what investment is needed to harden the system."

"And I think getting the right technology mix so we're taking advantage of the latest but not being paralysed by the concern that there's new things coming over the horizon. We don't want that paralysis of investment."

The committee wants to hear from regional and remote communities about challenges and ideas while is draws "good data" from states, territories and services.

"What we do need to do is to hear like what are the practical problems that people are experiencing in their everyday life, right?" Ms MacTiernan said.

"What's their perception of challenges that they are having? And we also would like hear to some positive stories, but what are the things that are really holding them back whether or not it's education or business or community?

"There's probably lots of good ideas out there about what can be done."

Public consultation will start in April and the committee's final report is due to government by December.