Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan. Will the minister inform the Senate of the steps the government is taking to ensure that mobile phone coverage in rural, regional and remote Australia continues to improve? Is the minister aware of any other alternatives?

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Ronaldson for the question. Senator Ronaldson is in fact quite correct that a key telecommunications priority for the government is to ensure that, despite scattered populations and vast terrain, mobile phone coverage continues to improve. Over the last 10 years, this government has invested more than $145 million to improve mobile phone coverage—

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sherry interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sherry! Shouting across the chamber is disorderly.

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and now we have an additional $30 million through the Mobile Connect program to ensure that coverage continues to improve. New investments such as Telstra’s rollout of a third generation mobile network slated to begin on 1 January next year will mean that 3G services for regional consumers, as well as better connectivity with multimegabit wireless broadband capacity, will be delivered.

While the government has welcomed Telstra’s decision to undertake this major investment in regional Australia, some consumers are concerned about losing coverage in the switch to the new 3G 850 network. Telstra has given public assurances that the CDMA network will remain in place until the new national 3G 850 network provides the same or better coverage and services. To ensure this occurs, earlier this year I formed a working group with representatives from my department, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Telstra to monitor the transition process. The working group is looking at a number of key issues relating to the transition, including handsets, coverage replication, information and an information strategy for consumers.

As the next step in the transition, today I announced a series of independent audits of the coverage of Telstra’s CDMA mobile phone network compared to its new 3G 850 network. These independent audits will be a tangible way of comparing coverage and will assess voice coverage of more than 80 sites across different states throughout the country. The field testing will include city and regional centres and will cover a representative sample of sites, including flat, mountainous and average terrain as well as wet, rice-growing country and river flats. Field testing will be conducted in the last quarter of 2006 to assess CDMA coverage. ACMA will then audit 3G 850 coverage again, further to the rollout. The ACMA coverage audits will help assure both the government and mobile phone users that a seamless transition to the new mobile network is being achieved.

I think we all recall—and no doubt it is seared into the memories of those in rural Australia who were left stranded without a mobile phone—the fact that, when the Labor Party switched off the analog network, it was on a drop-dead date without any plans at all for a replacement network. Rural Australians should not have to accept a network that does not at least replicate the coverage they already receive. It is what Labor did when it decided that rural Australia did not matter and just had to miss out, whilst the metropolitan areas were covered with a GSM network. That will not happen this time. This government will continue to protect the interests of rural Australia in the transition to a new, advanced mobile network.