Phone plan will strand rural users
THE Turnbull Government is planning on pulling the plug on landline phone services to more than 90,000 homes in regional and remote Australia.
Critics of the plan say the move would further disadvantage people living in remote areas, including schoolchildren in homestead classrooms.
It’s feared Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Regional Communications Minister Fiona Nash will abandon outback Australia on the recommendation of a Productivity Commission report into the Universal Service Obligation.
The obligation placed on “universal service providers” ensures they maintain a reliable fixed line phone service to Australians living outside mobile and NBN networks.
The Productivity Commission found that the National Broadband ( telephone) Network and mobile phone servi- ces had made the Universal Service Obligation redundant.
The commission has recommended the USO be phased out by 2020.
“USO arrangements were put in place in an era before the wi d e s p r e a d availability of mobile and br o a d b a n d services,” the ministers said in a statement.
Kim Hughes, Richmond- based president of the Queensland branch of the Isolated Children’s and Parents Association which oversees the educational needs of children in remote and regional areas, is concerned about the vast population of regional Australians living in the 90,000 homes located in the NBN satellite footprint.
She said none of those people had direct access to a mobile phone network and that the NBN satellite only gave access to an internet service that was not always reliable.
“People who currently rely on a fixed landline and live in the satellite footprint with no mobile phone coverage will be forced into substandard, unreliable satellite voice service,” Ms Hughes said. “If these re c o mmenda ti o n s are adopted they will be left with an inferior voice service.” She said the plan presented serious risks to children using the Sky Muster satellite for school. “They rely on fixed landline to access lessons with their class and teacher. A satellite- based service would reduce the quality and reliability of the lessons due to voice delays and dropouts,” she said. National secretary of the Communication Workers Union Greg Rayner condemned the Productivity Commission’s proposal. “Scrapping the USO is a cost- cutting agenda that will neglect Australians across the country in regional and remote areas,” Mr Rayner said.