Providing widespread terrestrial mobile coverage to regions is inherently difficult because Australia is so geographically vast. Over 99% of the population can receive a terrestrial mobile signal in their homes and neighbourhoods, but staying connected across Australia's regional places and remote roads remains a challenge.
The pandemic has had a considerable financial impact on the sector for reasons such as lost roaming revenues and accommodating customer hardship.6 Also, the ongoing costs of building new 5G networks in areas outside cities and towns mean funding for sites in remote areas is less certain. All levels of government need to consider how base stations in regional areas can be sustainably funded, approved and rented in the long term.
Low Earth orbit satellites Satellites that circumnavigate the Earth at altitudes of under 1,000 km, making them low enough to support internet connections in remote, rural and wilderness areas. |
The recent proliferation of low Earth orbit satellite technology provides an opportunity for additional broadband coverage in many parts of regional Australia. This technology tends to provide services of 50-150 megabytes per second (Mbps) and lower latency (the lag between data being transmitted and received). However, services are highly weather-dependent and can be less reliable than alternative methods.