Bill Dunn (pictured) makes no apology. The head of Telstra Country Wide in Queensland says the Next G system is vastly superior to anything that has come before.
“There is no doubt Next G is a major step forward in telecommunications,” Mr Dunn said.
“It already has better coverage and has infinitely greater capacity than anything that any other system has including CDMA.”
That said, he is the first to say that the mobile phone and broadband internet network has its shortfalls, particularly in regional and rural Australia where sparse populations can make it difficult to justify the up to $1 million needed to build a base station.
“That is why at every opportunity we need to impress on communities to pressure governments that these services are required,” Mr Dunn said.
“Just because a service cannot be justified on a commercial basis doesn’t mean there are not compelling reasons why a community should not have a mobile service and internet access.
“Telstra can provide any service that is required.
"But unless there is funding from government or other sources, many projects cannot be justified on a commercial basis.
“That is just one reason why Telstra has congratulated the current Federal Government decision to scrap the farcical OPEL contract which did nothing for people in rural and remote Australia.
“It would have been $958 million of government funding that would have been wasted on duplication, when it should clearly be used on expanding the necessary infrastructure into those areas that cannot be serviced on a commercial basis.”
This week the Telstra team was out in North West Queensland, attending the Regional Ministerial Forum in Richmond on Monday attending Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee meetings in Cloncurry on Tuesday and Richmond on Wednesday.
Notably, Telstra was the only provider to attend the meetings.
And while there appeared to be heaps of bricks being thrown particularly over black spots, reliability and the features of some phones, there were also plenty of bouquets, particularly from community leaders.
New Cloncurry Mayor Andrew Daniels said both the pastoral and mining industries have benefitted significantly from the development of mobile technology.
The challenge was expanding the coverage and preventing the duplication of services, he said.
Cr Daniels said it was logical a new Next G base station in his region should be located at the Three Ways, 230km to the north of Cloncurry improving coverage on the important Gulf access road.
During the telecommunications review committee meeting on Tuesday, RTIRC chairman Bill Glasson said there was a reasonable expectation that all communities would be provided with mobile phone access.
Once that was achieved it was logical all main highways should receive 100 percent coverage, he said.
Dr Glasson said telecommunications should be regarded as a equity issue, particularly given the agriculture and mineral wealth generated in rural Australia.
However, the necessary infrastructure should be provided by government because it was clear that providing service in many outlying areas could not be justified by telecommunications carriers on a commercial basis.
There are currently about 20 million mobile phones in service throughout Australia.
* Meanwhile the Nationals Farmers Federation announced last week it would not oppose the April 28 closure of the CDMA network. Telstra customers still with CDMA phones are still able to migrate to a Next G plan without penalty.
SOURCE: Queensland Country Life. Mark Phelps travelled to north-west Queensland last week as a guest of Telstra, to inspect Next G in the field.
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