Q1. Do people in regional Australia believe their reliance on telecommunications differs fromthose in urban areas? How does it differ and can you provide examples?
For business and personal use, I do not believe our reliance would be any different from urban areas, except that we are simply unable to rely on the availability or reliability of these services. As such, there are many services, technologies and efficiencies, especially with our business, that we are simply unable to utilise due to lack of reliable internet or mobile services. Also, given available internet plans are significantly more expensive for significantly lower downloads (ie we pay $60 per month for 8GB of downloads, compared to available urban plans at $30 per month for 100GB per month or even unlimited downloads) we are not able to afford to use internet services in the same way (not that it would be physically possible to download 100GB over a month on our internet service anyway)
Q2. For those users already connected to an nbn network service, has the service met yourexpectations?
N/A No services available
Q3. Having regard to the technical solution likely to be used in your area, do you have viewson the adequacy of that solution in terms of meeting needs now and into the future?
Any solution would be amazing! However, given the poor service we currently receive and the disinterest of Telstra in our issues, and the lack of any other alternative to Telstra at all, I find it hard to believe that there will ever be a solution even approaching adequate to our needs. I believe that in the area where my husband and I live (Gilgering WA), we are to be getting a new mobile tower sometime in the next 3 years, as the area is considered a blackspot. However, both at our farm, which is only 5km from the Mawson tower, and in the Beverley town site, which has another tower, there are constant problems with phone calls not going through or dropping out, and very slow internet speeds with constant drop outs. Telstra has acknowledged that there is a bandwidth problem, in that the towersare not powerful enough to meet user demand, but has given no timeframe for fixing these known issues – or even a commitment they will ever be fixed.
Q4. Irrespective of the adequacy of your local access, are there issues with backhaul or longdistance carriage that impacts on your use of telecommunications services?
I have no idea as I do not have any technical understanding of these things. However, it is very common to have copper phone lines strung out along fences and roadways, across creeks and driveways etc for kilometres at a time, open to the elements. This causes significant issues with home phone lines out here, particularly when it rains, or someone drives down the road, or there is a fire, or livestock or wildlife become tangled in the lines, etc, etc. In our home, we have had to go with a Next G Wireless link home phone, as Telstra was unwilling to fix the copper line to provide us with a working home phone.
Q5. For users living in areas without mobile coverage, what priorities, other than specific locations,do you consider should be recognised in future efforts to improve coverage?
The main priority is obviously coverage at all, but two areas for consideration should be placement of towers (often placed in the valley of a town site to service the town, which means that coverage does not stretch outside the immediate valley) and the bandwidth or capacity of towers to meet current and future demand. Once a reliable (or any) service is available the increase in demand is huge, as we begin to be able to rely on technology – but the services put in only ever seem to cater for current demand prior to the improvement, and are therefore never enough and consequently no improvement at all.
Q6. What opportunities do the mobile network industry see for extending coverage in regionalAustralia and increasing investment in mobile networks?
From their lack of coverage outside of major regional towns, I would assume that they see very little opportunity.
Q7. Do you have any views on co-investment approaches that might help to improve thebroadband technology outcome in your area?
Given that basic telecommunications services are vital to the running of our business, and is becoming more so all the time, particularly in dealing with government and banking services, I would expect that Government investment in infrastructure to provide these services so we at least have a reliable phone line and usable internet services should be a given in any areas where private business will not provide access or infrastructure.
Q8. How might new applications and services that utilise mobile networks for voice and datatransform the way you live and work?
We are a farming business, and I also am part of a farm management consulting business. Lack of internet service is the biggest barrier to uptake of new technologies in the agriculture industries. There are many new apps to assist in efficiencies of farming operations and technological advancements, particularly in the areas of robotics and remote operation of machinery, that are simply un- or underutilised because we do not have the internet service to support their use. This restricts opportunities for productive growth in the agricultural industry, and also restricts investment and research into new technologies, as there is no market for technologies that we can’t use.
Q9. What communications barriers have you experienced in expanding or operating your businessor providing services, such as health or education? Have you been able to overcome thesebarriers and if so, how?
The operation of our business is impacted on a daily basis. Time inefficiencies from repeated attempts to pay bills, lodge BAS forms, market our grain (to name just a few) all of which can see a simple task of just a few minutes take several hours to due slow speeds and constant drop outs are the major frustration. At times we attempt to do some of these tasks in the middle of the night, when demand is lowest and internet service generally more reliable, although this is no guarantee. Updates to programs or operating systems are can be a disaster, tying up your internet connection for days as the computer/smartphone attempts to download an update of a few MB, repeatedly dropping out and then starting all over again (and chewing up our precious 8GB of downloads at the same time). If updates are required for my operating system, or Agrimaster (our bookkeeping program) I will often need to drive to Perth (2 hour’s drive) to stay with family, just to use their internet service to allow the required updates to download properly. Sending a large email (for example, our Agrimaster bookkeeping file to our accountant) can be near impossible, and require us to put the file on a thumb drive and drive it to town to hand deliver it instead.
At seeding, hay cutting/baling and harvest time, we work in with another farm business, which provides us with logistical, labour and capital (machinery) efficiencies. However, as the distance from either end of the two farms is in the order of 40km, this means that we are reliant on mobile technology in order to communicate as the range is too great for two way radio. Our mobile bills for these times are extremely high, primarily due to the repeated drop-outs and then redialling, or the phones not ringing and having to leave messages and call back due to unreliable coverage.
In terms of upskilling the members of our business, there are many webinars and online tutorial/videos available on a variety of topics from organisations such as the GRDC that we are simply unable to utilise. This is disappointing, given that it is our levy funds that are used to fund the research and extension, but we are unable to receive many of the benefits due to lack of telecommunications services.
In the area of health, as with many regional areas, if we need to see a specialist, we have to go to Perth where they are based. I am currently pregnant, and have some underlying health issues that see me under the care of several Perth based specialist doctors. They would all like to be able to offer me consultations via Skype, to save me having to drive to Perth to have an appointment with them, but the internet service here is simply not up to video conferencing.
Q10. What communication functions (e.g. speed, mobility, reliability, data, etc) would best suit yourneeds, noting the limitations of each technology (e.g. mobile, wireless, satellite, fibre)?
I have no preference for the type of technology used – it is only the resultant service and my ability to rely on it and use it that impacts me. Reliability and speed of the internet connection (we use Next G wireless on our home, with an aerial on the roof) are the biggest daily frustrations for me. The mobile service is poor and unreliable (for phone calls), but it is the internet connection for data that has the biggest impact and cost to our business.
Q11. Do we need to continue to guarantee the standard telephone service for all (or only some)consumers, and if so, to what extent?
Absolutely. Even with the guarantee in place, it can be very difficult to receive those services from Telstra, and you absolutely need to know your rights. As a company, they make it as difficult to deal with them as possible, in the hope (I presume) that you will give up in frustration and go away, which invariably happens. Not many of us have the time to sit waiting on hold, transferring from department to department for days on end, only to be disconnected and have to start again or to be transferred back to the department you started with to begin the merry-go-round once again.
Q12. Are there new or other services, the availability of which should be underpinned by consumersafeguards?
I believe that there should be a similar guarantee in place for an internet service (again, once you can actually use). There is obviously no economic incentive for Telstra or any other company to provide these services to us. Given the agricultural industry is a major contributor to GDP, economic growth and a major employer; I believe the government should be supporting us by safeguarding our access to these services. I also believe that in today’s world, an internet connection is more of a necessity that a phone line and that rural Australians therefore should have access to these services.
Q13. What standards should apply to your services? How might they best be enforced?
There should be minimum standards for download speeds, price, and reliability of connection. It is frustrating in the extreme to be paying a premium for a service that much of the time is unusable, and the rest of the time is poor, but for which our business is so reliant on, with no alternative and no recourse. Telstra is happy to remind us that there is no requirement for them to actually provide any download speed at all through our internet connection, despite happily taking our money on a monthly basis. Given we need the internet to run our business, and that there is no alternative provider, we are stuck.
There should also be a requirement for Telstra or other providers to notify consumers of their rights under any guarantee, plus the Government should make people more aware of this as well. There should also be an easily accessible Ombudsmen that is both responsible to taking and investigation complaints, but also in holding service providers accountable for the obligations, and conducting regular investigations to ensure they are meeting minimum standards.