Rural mobile phone towers not built to allow others to share

The suggested sharing of phone towers by commercial operators has thrown up more problems than many had hoped.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has released its preliminary findings into its inquiry into regional mobile infrastructure.

Regional politicians have been calling for all rural phone towers to be "unlocked", to let anyone use their signal regardless of what carrier they are with.

Currently, mobile phone towers are locked to whichever telecommunication provider owns them, meaning only their customers can use their signal.

Rural independent Helen Haines said her office often fielded complaints from frustrated constituents, unable to get service despite being within metres of a tower.

Many rural organisations supported the potential for multi-carrier regional mobile phone towers during a recent parliamentary inquiry.

But the ACCC inquiry found most towers in remote areas "appear to be at capacity".

Phone towers built in urban areas make allowances "to accommodate multiple mobile network operators" it is less likely in more rural and remote areas.

Towers across rural Australia are built for a single network operator where in urban areas they are built to accommodate at least two operators.

"While the capability to provide tower space to additional tenants is possible, it is likely to involve significant additional expenditure such as tower strengthening, power and accommodation upgrades."

Also the inquiry found, "there appears to be a higher cost" of co-location after the initial build for second or third mobile operators due to the need to upgrade or strengthen towers to support additional equipment.

At the end of 2022, the ACCC vetoed a quasi-merger of TPG and Telstra in the regions, which would have seen the two companies share infrastructure, while decommissioning hundreds of rural phone towers.

The ACCC's inquiry examined the costs of providing towers and associated infrastructure across rural Australia.

One of its key briefs was to consider the technical feasibility of providing mobile roaming during natural disasters or other emergencies.

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"Our preliminary view is that temporary mobile roaming during natural disasters is technically feasible while acknowledging that there are issues that need to be considered to implement this capability," the ACCC found.

The inquiry found changes to the mobile network operators' business processes and systems would first be necessary.

"There would be a cost involved in establishing and maintaining a temporary mobile roaming capability.

"The mobile network operators have submitted this cost would be significant, however the ACCC is not able to verify this since the mobile network providers have not provided technical cost information in support or their submissions."

Enabling temporary mobile roaming may also contribute to the risk of congestion on operating networks during times of natural disaster, when there is likely to be significantly higher traffic demand, the inquiry found.

The ACCC has suggested a possible solution to manage the risk during these times was to restrict traffic from other networks (for example, by limiting traffic to low bit rate services).

As for sharing towers, most in rural and remote areas are still owned by Telstra, through its related company Amplitel.

"Access to existing towers in remoter areas will largely depend on the commercial terms of this entity," the ACCC said.

"Historically, the arrangements between the mobile network operators involved considerations broader than the costs of providing access to a tower.

"The mobile network infrastructure providers offer different terms of access which generally appear to be simpler and more aligned to mobile network operators' operating incentives."

The ACCC is now asking for feedback on its preliminary findings, before the more comprehensive final report is prepared for the government later in the year..

Submissions to the Regional Mobile Infrastructure Inquiry are due on May 16.