Interview with Jeremy Jones, ABC Capricornia

JEREMY JONES, HOST: Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland is with you this morning. Good morning, Michelle. How will the switch take place?
 
MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Good morning. I think it was very instructive to hear from a local there, a local small business operator as well.
 
There are probably three things here: the first is that the 3G switchover has been planned for some time, and one of the reasons why this is being done - and a lot of your listeners will remember when old networks like the CDMA network were switched over and the 2G networks were switched over - it's about utilising radio communication spectrum better to provide better data capability, better speed and a better all-round consumer experience. That's something that we support as the Government from a technical perspective.
 
The second is: you raise the important issue about what it means when 3G coverage goes. The planning for this has been done for some years and Telstra and the other operators have indicated their assurances to have 4G coverage equivalent to its 3G network, or at least that there be no loss of coverage following the shutdown. This is something that we as a Government are monitoring very closely and working with the carriers on because they have given these undertakings, but we want to make sure that consumers benefit overall from the switchover.
 
And the third is - as you mentioned - there are a number of devices that are impacted by this and the one that most concerns the Government is the fact that we've got some handsets that can utilise the 4G network, but when you need to make Triple Zero calls, they actually revert to the 3G network. These people won't actually know that their phone can't contact Triple Zero until they actually need to contact Triple Zero. This is why I've established an industry Working Group and why I'm really pleased to be able to speak to you and your listeners this morning to let people know what they need to do to check that their device will be compatible. People can go to www.3gclosure.com.au which has been set up by the industry – while Telstra and Optus customers can also text the numeral ‘3’ to the number ‘3498’ and that will give a response as to whether or not their device is impacted. So, that's the numeral ‘3’ - just text that to ‘3498’.
 
I know that when we initially received advice on this - there were some 740,000 devices that were impacted. We've been getting out as a Government, working with industry to make people aware and that estimation is now down to about 283,000 devices. It's still too high - we still need to get people to check because we don't want people calling Triple Zero the day they need it and not being able to get through.
 
JONES: You're hearing from Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications. Michelle, you mentioned there that this change will hopefully improve things. We're hearing from people this morning about their reception issues and even issues in buildings such as the Rockhampton Base Hospital. With these changes, can we be confident that the days of driving from Yeppoon to Rocky and having blackspots may go, are you confident things will get better?
 
ROWLAND: Well, things will definitely improve as a result of using the spectrum better. Consumers will see a benefit there in terms of coverage overall. We're very aware as a Government that this is a critical issue, especially in regional Australia. As your guest was saying earlier - it's essential, it's the reliability, the need for small businesses and consumers to have this access. We saw this during the Optus outage late last year where small businesses were really impacted by this and so were consumers. So, it remains a constant challenge for these regional areas, but I’m very alive to this as Minister, and as a Government. That’s why we have a $1.1 billion Better Connectivity Plan for our regions that includes enhancing mobile coverage, it includes increasing resilience of mobile communications, particularly in disaster-prone areas, but also ensuring that we are future focused as well.
 
When we have some of the Mobile Black Spot Program, we want to encourage other carriers to come on board. Many of your listeners will know sometimes they'll be in a regional area where there's probably only one provider available and they don't get that competition and the benefits that come from having alternative providers. So, we've been pursuing this as a Government to enhance competition in these areas.
 
But I think it's also fair to say that we've learned already from the Regional Telecommunications Review that is currently being undertaken - that access to reliable communications and mobile comms, in particular, is front and centre for all of these communities. It remains a very high focus of ours. I understand that, for example, recently there were ongoing mobile coverage issues at Collinsville. I've taken this up directly with Telstra and they have said that they've got a project plan to relieve congestion, to improve the quality of service that's there.
 
One thing that's coming out of the early feedback from the Regional Telecommunications Review is that people are really concerned about reliability and the time that it takes for technicians to come out. As I said, I have raised this directly with Telstra. Price is obviously an issue - cost of living is a big challenge, but for many of these people, they're not complaining about price, they're complaining about reliability. Why aren't I getting what I paid for and why does it take so long for these services to come online if there is an outage?
 
JONES: A very local question for you here about our reception here - the Bruce Highway is a major Queensland highway and would an area like this be a priority in terms of getting better reception, is that something we could see happening?
 
ROWLAND: Certainly, I'm very happy to take that on board. As part of our Better Connectivity Plan, we're looking at pilots on highways as well and on major thoroughfares. I'm working with the various State Ministers in this regard as well, in setting up some of these pilots. Queensland's obviously taken a very keen interest in this, and there’s around $50 million that's been allocated for those pilots. I'm very pleased that you raised that because I'll take that on board directly and through some of the deliberations we've got going at the moment.
 
JONES: Minister, thanks for joining us this morning.
 
ROWLAND: Pleasure, thank you.