{"id":79887,"date":"2025-10-17T04:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/79887\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T04:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:37:09","slug":"poor-phone-reception-threatening-regional-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/79887\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor phone reception threatening regional\u00a0safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians rely on their phones and the internet for education, business, socialising and in emergencies. And as Optus\u2019 recent Triple Zero outage<\/a> highlights, the consequences of a network outage can be fatal.<\/p>\n

But the problems go beyond Triple Zero. The latest annual report<\/a> from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, released earlier this week, shows a spike in complaints about network connection issues compared to last financial year. For example, there was a nearly 70% increase in complaints about \u201cno phone or internet service\u201d. Complaints about \u201cpoor mobile coverage\u201d also increased more than 25%.<\/p>\n

When it comes to connectivity problems, we often think about remote environments such as inland cattle stations or Indigenous communities in central and far north Australia. Or how language barriers, affordability and age might impact access.<\/p>\n

However, across various research projects looking at digital inclusion, we have found a policy blind spot, where populations residing in certain suburban and regional areas have poorer connectivity outcomes than remote areas.<\/p>\n

These people experience ongoing problems with network connection despite living in locations that look good on paper. This could be because of local infrastructure gaps or compounding social factors. We call this group \u201cthe missing middle\u201d.<\/p>\n

Until now, the absence of a clearly defined category has made it difficult to capture or report on their experiences systematically.<\/p>\n

What is \u2018digital inclusion\u2019?<\/p>\n

Digital inclusion<\/a> is about ensuring all Australians, no matter who they are or where they live, have access to affordable, quality telecommunications and internet, and possess the skills necessary to benefit from these connections.<\/p>\n

The issue is even more important as we face a changing climate, with telecommunications playing a crucial role in emergencies and during natural disasters.<\/p>\n

Our research from 2023 on emergency preparedness<\/a>
with rural residents showed the importance of ongoing telecommunications connectivity \u2013 especially during emergencies.<\/p>\n

People participate in online community forums by keeping each other informed about conditions and contacting emergency services such as Triple Zero if they need to during the disaster. Afterwards, they use the internet to apply for financial assistance online.<\/p>\n

Of course, natural disasters do not discriminate. Recent cyclones, floods and bushfires have impacted urban<\/a> areas, as well as the outer edges of cities<\/a> and key regional centres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A good location doesn\u2019t equal good connectivity<\/p>\n

These combined forces have ensured telecommunications policies consistently focus on access. But access is just one component of Australia\u2019s connectivity needs.<\/p>\n

Through various interviews, focus groups and fieldwork across urban, regional and rural Australia from 2021\u201324 we have found that location alone doesn\u2019t determine<\/a> how good connectivity is.<\/p>\n

In fact, some remote areas fare better than outer regional areas<\/a> when it comes to telecommunications connectivity. This indicates geography isn\u2019t the only factor affecting people\u2019s level of digital inclusion.<\/p>\n

Instead, compounding factors are determining whether or not people are digitally included.<\/p>\n

For example, some people may not have enough money to afford appropriate connectivity to meet basic needs, needing two SIM cards to manage two unreliable networks. Infrastructure investment can also be patchy. A major regional town might have excellent coverage, but satellite towns could have a much poorer experience.<\/p>\n

Urban networks can also taper off before reaching new builds on the edge of cities. Other people may have simply purchased a house amid inhospitable terrain, which can impact whether satellite internet services such as Starlink<\/a> can be installed.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Dubbo is a major regional centre but suffers from poor reception.
Maksym Kozlenko\/Wikimedia<\/a>
\nVoices from the \u2018missing middle\u2019<\/p>\n

Experiences<\/a> of 5G mobile consumers in suburban and regional Victoria we spoke with in 2024 give us some sense of this \u201cmissing middle\u201d population.<\/p>\n

One participant from Gippsland said:<\/p>\n

I can be in the main street of a main regional town and not have reception.<\/p>\n

Another participant said it was \u201cless than ideal\u201d that in the area between two towns \u201cthere\u2019s still patches where we don\u2019t get reception\u201d. Echoing this, another participant said they felt it was reasonable to \u201cexpect to be able to drive from Gisborne to Kyneton [a distance of 30km] and not drop out on a phone call three times\u201d.<\/p>\n

These issues were not the sole preserve of those living in regional areas. Someone from a new housing development on the outskirts of Melbourne told us there was barely any mobile coverage in the area and said their phone was \u201cjust not usable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dubbo is another example<\/a>. While some major regional cities are well-connected, this major town in the central west of New South Wales is also part of the \u201cmissing middle\u201d.<\/p>\n

First Nations organisations there experienced slow and unreliable network connection. This impacted their capacity to service the area. Drops in coverage resulted in double handling of work. For example, land surveys would often need to be written by hand on site, then converted to digital forms back in a place with better connectivity.<\/p>\n

A targeted approach<\/p>\n

Lots of work has has been done in recent years to improve connectivity across Australia.<\/p>\n

Since the National Broadband Network (NBN) was completed in 2020, more fixed line services \u2014 where a connection is installed in the home (like an NBN box) \u2014 have been made available in rural towns.<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s flagship infrastructure projects \u2013 such as the Regional Connectivity Program and Mobile Blackspot Program \u2013 have also steadily improved digital inclusion in many locations over the last decade. Starlink and the NBN\u2019s satellite internet service SkyMuster<\/a> are new entrants, providing a new connectivity option for people who live in the right locations (and can afford it).<\/p>\n

However, current policy approaches to patching up connectivity gaps minimises the scale of the missing middle.<\/p>\n

This is the result of several factors. First, a failure to understand the different needs of the local and visitor populations who use digital services. Second, fragmentation across telecommunications options (NBN, mobile hotspotting and Starlink). Third, a need to account for overlapping disadvantages.<\/p>\n

We need to look beyond location or access, and develop a robust account of the \u201cmissing middle\u201d.<\/p>\n

Doing so requires policymakers and researchers to focus on areas with mixed and complex connectivity needs. Importantly, this kind of shift will help policymakers target the needs of these Australian telecommunication consumers.\"The<\/p>\n

James Meese<\/a>, Associate Professor, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University<\/a>; Amber Marshall<\/a>, Lecturer, Department of Management, Griffith University<\/a>; Holly Randell-Moon<\/a>, Senior Lecturer, School of Indigenous Australian Studies, Charles Sturt University<\/a>; Jenny Kennedy<\/a>, Associate Professor, Media and Communications, RMIT University<\/a>, and Rowan Wilken<\/a>, Associate Professor, Media and Communication, RMIT University<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians rely on their phones and the internet for education, business, socialising and in emergencies. And as Optus\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[85,123,46,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-79887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-internet","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}