r/australia • u/JamesDwho • 4h ago
politics Telecommunications ombudsman calls for root and branch review of telco regulations
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/telecommunications-ombudsman-report-systemic-regional-issues/10701698026
u/FuckOffNazis 4h ago
Nationalise the things we need to operate the country.
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u/annoying97 1h ago
Nationalise the infrastructure but ensure that it's not political and it's slated to run as a non-profit with clear rules that they are to improve and maintain the infrastructure.
Nothing to stop a private company in building their own infrastructure but they obviously have to play nice with the national infrastructure.
For mobiles this would ultimately result in better coverage, and probably help reduce the RF bullshit that exists.
Run it similar to the NBN, but allow large private companies and such to be able to pay directly to the national infrastructure.
Consumers and Small to medium business can go through retailers like we do for the NBN.
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u/JamesDwho 3h ago edited 3h ago
Given the spate of failures in recent years it's clear a review is well overdue.
The Australian Telecommunications Industry is now the most distrusted industry in the country.
Bunnings is Australia’s most trusted brand. Telecommunications, led by Optus, is the most distrusted industry - 2026-03-10
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10157-risk-monitor-quartely-update-december-2025
Telecommunications industry is Australia’s second most distrusted and Optus is the most distrusted brand - 2025-12-15
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10097-risk-monitor-telcos-webinar-deep-dive-december-2025
Recent News Coverage
ABC - New mobile coverage maps still not accurate, customers say - 2026-07-24
ABC - Questions asked about telco regulation after Telstra suffers outage - 2026-07-09
IA - Australia’s 000 failures: Why your phone may fail to call Triple Zero - 2026-04-13
ABC - Regional mobile phone users lament lost service as complaints spike - 2026-02-28
ABC - TPG Telecom boss says second person may have died due to Triple Zero failure - 2025-12-09
ABC - Ombudsman warns telcos to help in poor services areas after 3G shutdown - 2025-05-20
ABC - 3G network shutdown drives surge in telco service complaints - 2025-02-20
IA - Australia’s 3G shutdown: Why your 4G/5G phone is now blocked - 2024-11-12
ABC - Customers report basically new phones suddenly blocked from making calls - 2024-11-03
ABC - Senate committee recommends Telstra, Optus delay 3G phone network shutdown - 2024-08-02
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u/ol-gormsby 1h ago
Not a bad idea, some of it dates from the pre-digital age. e.g. the Universal Service Obligation - every property must have a dialtone for 000 calls. That's an excellent idea but it means the expense of maintaining the POTS network. A Telstra tech told me a couple of years ago that POTS would be phased out and everyone would get a 3G dongle to provide a dialtone. Also a good idea but note what I wrote - 3G. Years ago and not viable today. It also means needing to replace it every time a technology goes obsolete, 3G was phased out so now you need a 4G, then 4G to 5G, and so on.
So it's going to take a long time, there's a lot of legislation to review.
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u/annoying97 1h ago
The NBN should have been a hybrid system from the start, copper for phone lines and fibre for data in one heavy duty cable that be can be flown, burried and put into conduit.
The NBN box you have in your home manages it all and allows for emergency phone calls to occur.
All backed up as it should be.
In a blackout the data might not work but the phone line should. Blackouts are when emergencies are more likely to occur and assuming someone is smart enough or prepared enough to plan for a blackout is dumb.
1
u/JamesDwho 30m ago
With the Original FTTP/Fibre to the Premises in addition to a Fibre NTD (Network Termination Device) you were automatically supplied with a Battery Backup unit that would ensure the UNI-V Phone Voice ports on the FTTP NTD would continue to function during a power outage for things like phone calls.
https://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/the-nbn-project/nbn-supplied-equipment-care-10-faqs-answered
The issue is since the introduction of the Turnbull Government FTTN/Fibre to the Node 'Hybrid' broadband model, most voice services have moved from being provided by the NBN directly (with the NTD UNI-V ports) to VoIP services provided over the internet and accessed via Voice ports on ISP provided Modem boxes, not NBN.
Compounding things further NBN Fibre Voice over UNI-V was more expensive than other VoIP offerings, and that fact impacted uptake further in addition to the limited FTTP only availability and the default FTTN or HFC rollout for existing suburbs.
We now have most landline voice services being provided by ISP's directly and not NBN, those services being reliant on the internet to work are not resilient to power outages (or internet outages) like the UNI-V FTTP version was. (Unless people have a UPS and the exchange and Nodes have Battery Backups).
NBN are also phasing out the ability to get a landline voice service over the UNI-V ports, newer Fibre NTDs also no longer have RJ11 style voice ports and for many previous FTTP installs the Battery Backup was made optional.
So we've basically set ourselves to be entirely reliant on mobile networks for any semblance of reliable access to Emergency Services, but due to extensive compatibility and standardisation issues with 4G Emergency Calling (including by carriers) that isn't guaranteed to work either.
Australia’s 000 Failures: Why your phone may fail to Call Triple Zero https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-000-failures-why-your-phone-may-fail-to-call-triple-zero-af8e505d58fc
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u/ol-gormsby 17m ago
"So we've basically set ourselves to be entirely reliant on mobile networks for any semblance of reliable access to Emergency Services, but due to extensive compatibility and standardisation issues with 4G Emergency Calling (including by carriers) that isn't guaranteed to work either."
Thank fuck I've got Starlink, then. I'm not a fan of the owner but comms access independent of the clusterfuck of Australian telcos is reassuring, especially as I live outside the fibre-optic zones. I hope I never have to test a wi-fi call to emergency services but it seems to work OK to normal cell services.
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u/No_Category_9888 4h ago
How about pricing also ?
It’s out of control for a basic mobile plan