The ‘no brainer’ fix to mobile outages consumer groups want mandated | The Business | ABC NEWS
Calls are growing for domestic roaming to be mandated in Australia, with advocates claiming it would help give mobile users better access and more competitive prices. An Australian Communications Consumer Advocacy Network (ACCAN) report suggests 73 per cent of Australians support the change, which would allow customers to use their phones on another network when outside their provider’s coverage area. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last looked at the issue in 2017 and decided against it because it thought it would reduce incentives for telcos to invest in the network while the impact on prices was uncertain. The ACCC declined to be interviewed, but in a statement, a spokesperson said it was “understandable” there were increasing calls to mandate roaming. Telstra said the same challenges around competition and investment identified in the 2017 inquiry still applied, and that roaming would not have helped customers in the nationwide outage last week. A spokesperson for Optus acknowledged that domestic roaming “may present opportunities for improved consumer network choice and drive greater competitive outcomes, especially in regional and remote Australia”. TPG, which owns Vodafone, said it supported mandatory roaming when the ACCC last looked at it and that this discussion “comes a decade too late”. Independent telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said Australia’s network needed to be more resilient and that roaming could be one part of that but it would require investment and policy changes.
The latest regional telecommunications review recommended the government ask the competition regulator to conduct a new inquiry. The ACCC says it will consider whether another investigation is warranted. The federal government says its working on policy to force telcos to provide reasonable outdoor coverage everywhere.
#ABCBusiness
Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE
Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-13/calls-for-mandatory-domestic-mobile-roaming-intensify/106899332
Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.
#ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia
