PHOTO: Time to share? There are increasing calls for compulsory sharing of telecommunications infrastructure. Image: Pixabay.
There is mounting pressure on Telstra and Federal Government to allow other carriers to use Telstra mobile phone towners as the full extent of poor coverage in regional NSW is being revealed.
A Federal Government inquiry is currently putting together a report on the experience, opportunities and challenges for co-investment in multi-carrier regional mobile infrastructure and has received a number of submissions reminding them of the extent of mobile blackspots in rural Australia.
The NSW Government wrote in its submission to the inquiry that there was a “growing digital divide” between metropolitan Sydney and rural Australia which recent natural disasters had shown improvements were necessary for both “public safety and economic inclusion…