REGIONAL politicians are 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.
Nationals leader David Littleproud is among those who want regulatory guidelines to make sure they could be used by all Australians, no matter what telco they were with.
In 2017, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled against mandated mobile roaming. Mr Littleproud said it was clear the ACCC got the decision wrong.
"[These decision makers] need to get out of their capital city offices with a mobile phone in hand and see what we go through," Mr Littleproud said.
"In 2023, communication has never been more important. It's critical as a safety and emergency response, enabling better commerce, business and social interaction in areas of limited network coverage."
Rural independent Helen Haines said her office often fielded complaints from frustrated constituents in north-east Victoria, unable to get service despite being within metres of a tower.
"This has significant ramifications to the livelihood, sustainability and safety of our population and the high number of visitors to our region every year," the Indi MP said.
"Staying connected across vast distances is critical to the social and economic success of modern regional communities."
Dr Haines said mobile roaming was particularly important for emergency services in natural disasters trying to communicate evacuation orders or bushfire alerts.
Labor has launched a parliamentary inquiry, investigating the potential for multi-carrier regional mobile phone towers, which Ms Haines and dozens of rural organisations have made submissions to, endorsing the idea.
The ACCC has begun its own Regional Mobile Infrastructure Inquiry, which Mr Littleproud urged rural customers to share their experience with.
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.
ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said although there were short-term benefits in improved TPG network coverage and cost savings for both telcos, the deal would likely lead to less competition in the longer term and leave Australian mobile users worse off over time.
Both the ACCC and the parliamentary inquiry are due to release their final reports later this year.
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