Telstra who this week suffered a major outage across Australia, with customers not being able to make and receive calls is still battling to deliver services in rural Australia with rural retailers claiming that their business is being seriously affected.
This is not a new issue for Telstra with the recent national outage just one more hit for their rural customers.
With the recent outage most complaints appeared to come from rural Australia.
Some regional communities witnessed dropouts and speeds 90% slower than the cities.
The Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory lost internet capability for 38 hours and is still counting their losses.
The owner Coral Druce, claim that the outage prevented the access of online orders and customers being able to ‘tap and go’ if on the premises.
“Our business was literally at a standstill when we lost internet, which happens more often than not. Reliable internet access is essential for a business to run successfully and in the current economic climate, with people tightening their spending, no internet access could ruin some businesses,” Ms Druce said.
“To make matters worse, we weren’t told what was going on so we had to spend hours on hold to Telstra trying to sort it out, only to be told they didn’t know when it would be fixed.”
“Our state and federal governments are actively trying to entice more people to move away from the cities and into regional areas, and encourage small businesses to set up shop, which many are doing.”
“However, access to fast and reliable internet, mobile phone service and transport remains a barrier. Greater access to these services will give more businesses the assurance they need to start a successful business.”
The latest Index data from the Australia Digital Inclusion Index reports 2.8 million Australians remain ‘highly excluded’ from access to the internet.
This is preventing the move to a world rapidly heading online as they have no adequate access to phone and internet services.
Regional businesses are putting in their demands before the federal government’s Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee that is set to meet shortly.
What rural customers want are:
1. Better access to reliable services
2. Safeguards to be put in place to keep businesses running when networks are down.
3. Greater access to service providers, creating more competition and more competitive pricing.
4. A review of the current Universal Service Obligation to include internet services.
5. Better attention to network maintenance and repairs
“These problems have already been outlined by the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, “All we ask is that these concerns are addressed,” claims Druce said.
Telstra is blaming one of the problems on the lack of approval of the proposed merger of the Telstra Corporation Limited and TPG Telecom Limited networks in rural Australia by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.
The knockback came after ACCC undertook an extensive public consultation and investigatory process of the proposed deal.
“We examined the proposed arrangements in considerable detail” the ACCC claimed.
“While there are some benefits, it is our view that the proposed arrangements will likely lead to less competition in the longer term and leave Australian mobile users worse off over time, in terms of price and regional coverage,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.
“Mobile networks are of critical importance to many aspects of our lives, including our livelihood, our wellbeing, and our ability to keep in touch with friends and family. Any reduction in competition will have very wide-ranging impacts on customers, including higher prices and reduced quality and coverage.”
“Mobile network operators compete on price and a user’s package inclusions, but importantly, they also compete on coverage, speed and other quality dimensions that are directly influenced by the nature and extent of their underlying network infrastructure,”
“Entering into the arrangements proposed by Telstra and TPG will represent a significant change to the structure of the market that would have long-term consequences.”
“After careful consideration, we determined that these undertakings did not change whether the ACCC was satisfied of the relevant competition or public benefit tests against which the ACCC must assess a proposed merger authorisation,” Ms Carver said.
“The proposed arrangements would have an immediate impact on infrastructure competition in Australia and that impact would endure. Even if the arrangements were terminated after eight years, it would be too late to unwind the negative competitive impact.”
The main opponent to the proposed merger of networks was Optus.
