Labor promises nationwide mobile coverage
The Labor Party will introduce new laws to extend mobile phone coverage across Australia if re-elected at the upcoming election.
Black spots in mobile phone coverage could be a thing of the past under a federal government scheme if Labor is re-elected.
Telcos would be required to provide outdoor mobile coverage across all of Australia under laws to be introduced by Labor if it retains government at the upcoming election.
All outdoor areas of Australia would have mobile coverage by 2027 under the laws, with an extra five million square kilometres to gain service, including 37,000 kilometres of roads in regional areas.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the obligation for telcos would guarantee Australians had access to mobile service anywhere they could see the sky.
“The universal outdoor mobile obligation will improve public safety, increase resilience during natural disasters and provide an extra layer of coverage in areas previously thought too difficult or costly to reach,” she said on Tuesday.
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“The experience will be different to land mobile networks but the benefits transformative, particularly for a large continent such as ours.”
While Australia has previously had a universal service obligation for landlines and payphones, it has not extended to mobile phone coverage.
Laws setting up the requirement would be introduced to parliament later in 2025, with the mobile obligation to focus at first on SMS and phone calls.
The universal service could be expanded to include mobile data in the future as technology improves.
Rowland said universal mobile phone coverage would help to expand emergency call access and improve signal availability during natural disasters.
