Tragedy highlights regional black holes

Mr Wilson spoke in the House of Representatives in Canberra last week, conveying the feelings of Katharine Marsh who lost her partner after a motorcycle accident last year.

The incident could have been avoided with better access to emergency phone services at Kojonup, in his O'Connor electorate.

Mr Wilson said Ms Marsh had put together a petition with 15,000 signatures calling for complete triple zero access across the country, that he would soon table in federal parliament.

"Katharine has asked me to tell her story," he said, in reading out her message.

"My partner Mick McInnes died in a motorbike accident on October 31 leaving me widowed and pregnant with a son who will never know his dad.

"Sadly the accident occurred in a mobile black spot with 000 unable to be called - 20 precious minutes were lost seeking medical assistance.

"Given Mick walked away and was conscious for almost two hours, this lost time probably would have saved his life.

"I am devastated 000 is not accessible everywhere, and most mobile users are also unaware this is the case.

"This is deplorable in a first-world country.

"My petition for further funding and a deadline to resolve identified mobile black spots has gathered 15,000 written signatures.

"The mobile black spot program is imperative - it is the difference between life and death."

Mr Wilson said the government had announced 60 new mobile phone towers for his large rural electorate to eliminate black spots and he anticipated many more in round two.

But he stressed: "There is much more work to be done."

"Katharine's tragic story underlines the importance of addressing mobile phone black spots," he said.

"We cannot rest until every Australian has emergency phone access, regardless of their location."

Vodafone Australia has criticised the substandard quality of regional communication services and lack of competition to promote fair access to modern services to deliver basic living needs or boost agricultural productivity.

Vodafone chief executive officer Inaki Berroeta said the digital services offered in metropolitan Australia were "world-class" in terms of availability, performance and customer choice but "unfortunately that's not the case in regional Australia".

"In many cases customers are not able to get the same level of performance that they can get in the cities but also they don't have choice and on many occasions they can only access one service provider," he said.

"The difference between the availability of technology in the cities and the regions is probably bigger than what I've seen in other places around the world where government policies have tried to limit this divide.

"There needs to be a closer look into how to minimise this difference between the communication services provided in the two Australias."

Mr Berroeta said Australia had dedicated a significant amount of public money to build communications infrastructure which should be open to other players to promote competition and better services but was controlled by a monopoly operator Telstra.

He said the government spent $250 million last year on the Universal Service Obligation (USO) that only went to Telstra, which wasn't a good use of public money.

Last week the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) and Vodafone welcomed the Productivity Commission's release of terms of reference for an inquiry into the USO to drive telecommunications policy reform.

Vodafone chief strategy officer Dan Lloyd said the USO was outdated and welcomed the inquiry investigating its affects on competition, investment and productivity.

"The USO is a roadblock to effective competition in regional areas which means customers in these areas are paying too much and many have no choice of provider," he said.

NFF president Brent Finlay said the USO reform was an opportunity to redress connectivity in the bush.

He said hundreds of communities were still without mobile phone coverage which stifled agricultural productivity and farm safety improvements.

The NFF will be arguing for a fresh approach that delivers increased funding for mobile blackspots and continued investment in rural broadband, he said of the review.

"The Productivity Commission inquiry is an important next step in the reform process and we look forward to communicating the needs of rural Australia over coming months," he said.

Vodafone also praised the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's decision to cut wholesale transmission prices by about 70 per cent to allow increased competition in regional areas.

Vodafone chief strategy officer Dan Lloyd said transmission prices had been far too high for far too long and were preventing competition in regional and rural areas.

He said the decision meant Vodafone would be able to bid on sites under the Mobile Black Spot Program which were previously unattainable.