It has been a big year for regional telecommunications issues.
For Telstra this has meant planning, investing and building to deliver better services to regional customers.
The infrastructure we build and services we provide are heavily regulated, and this year we’ve seen some significant discussions taking place around some of these rules.
The Productivity Commission’s review of Australia’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) is hugely important for regional and remote areas.
At the moment the USO provides a guarantee no matter where you live or work, you can get access to a telephone service.
The Commission is not recommending to scrap the consumer protections in the USO - but it is advocating for alternative ways of providing them.
We support many of the points the Commission has raised and remain open to reforming the USO where customer experience can be improved.
Once the rollout of the NBN is complete, there’s a real opportunity to examine what technology can be used to deliver a universal service.
We also agree the Government should consider whether the ongoing obligation to have payphones available to the public is delivering the best value to regional communities.
The top priority should be making sure everyone fully understands how changes to the USO could be made in a way that ensures people living in remote Australia get a better customer experience.
Telstra has a long standing commitment to regional Australia. We also know there’s more work to do.
We are looking forward to 2017 and continuing our investment into both the fixed and mobile network to benefit and service regional Australia.
To do this we need Australia’s regulators and policy makers to continue to set fair rules that reward investment and hard work.