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Transcript - Mobile Black Spot Programme Announcement
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well ladies and gentlemen thank you very much, I'm here with the Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Paul Fletcher to make a really exciting announcement that is going to be so important for regional Australia.
During the six years of the Labor Government not one cent was spent to address mobile phone black spots, and yet all of us know that in - outside of the big cities the biggest telecommu... complaints about telecommunications is I've got no mobile phone coverage. In the Howard Government there was a mobile phone black spot program, and now again under the Abbott Government there is one too.
This is being handled by Paul Fletcher who's done a really outstanding job in managing this. We are announcing today that there will be 499 new base stations across Australia funded from this program; $100 million of federal money leveraging $385 million in total including generous donations from several states, and - as Paul will detail - and of course the carriers Telstra and Vodafone providing - funding these towers and base stations which will become part of their network. There was 6000 black spots nominated in this process, and this announcement today will address 3000 of them in whole or in part. So there is a very, very big connectivity bang for the Federal Government buck.
It's been a terrific program. It's the - Paul will describe the way in which we've cooperated with the NBN with co-locations as well. The way in which the Department's algorithm has weighed up the amount of coverage delivered, population issues, connectivity issues, how we've worked with state governments, how we've worked with local councils. It's been a great collaborative process, and just before I hand over to Paul I want to thank very much all of our colleagues in the Parliament because MPs and Senators too of course are in the front-line, they know what their communities need, and the input and the assistance we've had from colleagues directly or at the many public meetings we've had, even... including with Bruce Scott there in Maranoa, and the outer Barcoo where not only the churches are few, but the mobile connectivity is also [laughs] few. But not as few - now henceforth, not as few as it used to be. So on that note the guy that pulled it all together, and did such a fantastic job; Paul Fletcher.
[Applause]
PAUL FLETCHER:
Thank you very much Malcolm. Well the people of regional and remote Australia have been saying very, very clearly that they want better mobile coverage. The Abbott Government has heard that message and in our announcement today we are responding decisively. We have as Malcolm has said $385 million of investment, 499 new or upgraded base stations in outer metropolitan, regional, and remote Australia, and that represents the outcome of the selection process in mobile black spots round one. Of course we're also announcing today another $60 million for mobile black spots round two.
Since the 2013 election I've been to some 40 regional and remote electorates, over 60 community meetings; very strong messages from the people who attend those meetings, be it Yaraka in Western Queensland, Bindoon in Western Australia, Dereel in Victoria, Sisters Beach in Tasmania, Savernake in New South Wales, and many, many other communities. People are saying they want better mobile coverage, for a quicker response for car accidents, for farm accidents, for bushfires, floods, so the tourism operators can attract more guests, so the children can use mobile broadband to do their homework, so that farmers can sell their crops online while sitting on the tractor, and so that people don't miss out on business or social calls or texts.
The announcement that we're responding to those requirements with today is the most significant increase in coverage delivered by a public funding program in the history of Australian mobile communications. And it is particularly pleasing that we've had such good level of cooperation between the Federal Government and the state governments, $24 million from New South Wales, $21 million from Victoria, $10 million from Queensland, $32 million from Western Australian, and $350,000 from the Tasmanian Government. So Labor or Liberal, governments have seen the wisdom of working together to create the largest possible pool of funds and to give the mobile network operators the best possible incentive to come forward with serious and creative proposals.
I do want to acknowledge the mobile network operators. All three operators put forward proposals and base stations from two of them have been chosen for funding; Telstra and Vodafone. Both Telstra and Vodafone have put a lot of effort into this, a lot of creative thinking, I want to congratulate those companies on their bid teams which have worked so hard.
I also want to talk for a moment as the minister mentioned about the selection process. What we asked the mobile network operators to do is to put forward proposals for base stations to serve locations that had been nominated by members of the community. That list of some six thousand black spots nominated around Australia. Once the carriers - the mobile network operators had put forward their proposals we ranked them base station by base station using an algorithm applying the principles and the guidelines so there were points for numbers of square kilometres of coverage, numbers of kilometres of major transport route that got coverage and so on, also points for the amount of co-contribution, funding from state governments and indeed from communities and that was the basis upon which we arrived at the list that we're announcing today, can I join with Malcolm in thanking parliamentary colleagues who have worked so hard and who know so much about the needs of their communities and that's been very evident to me as I've travelled around our country.
Of course we have a massive country, today's announcement is going to being mobile coverage to a lot of areas that did not have it but there will still remain some areas that don't have coverage and so I want to close by highlighting two aspects of today's announcement that are important for those that haven't received funding under this particular announcement. Firstly the mobile black spot round two, the $60 million and again we anticipate working cooperatively with the states, we will certainly be inviting them to do that and again going through a competitive selection process. In addition I want to highlight an aspect of the proposal from Telstra which is 200 4G mini base stations in locations in small towns around Australia, where suitable infrastructure is available.
Now mini base stations will have a range of between 200 and 300 metres, they'll support data over the 4G network and they'll support voice services as the technology for 4G based voice becomes available and so Telstra or the Government will be working with Telstra over the coming months to identify the locations for those which will be another opportunity to address the needs of communities which may have missed out under this program. So with that I'd now like to invite Andy Penn the CEO of Telstra to come up and talk for moment about Telstra's involvement.
[Applause]
ANDY PENN:
Thank you very much and firstly can I just say well done to Paul for his great leadership on this program. I'm very pleased that Telstra's going to be playing such a lead role in what is a very exciting program bringing mobile coverage to hundreds of regional communities. We've invested billions of dollars over the years to build a world class network that reaches more than 99 per cent of Australia's population. The black spots program helps us extend that coverage even further to areas where it wouldn't have otherwise been commercially viable to do so through an investment alone through Telstra.
We put a comprehensive bid into this process and in recognition of this the Government has committed a large proportion of the funding to Telstra, we will be building 429 new 3G and 4G base stations, with 3G and 4G to each and every station across Australia and over the next three years that will require an additional investment by Telstra of $165 million in addition to the money which is being funded and supported by the Federal Government, state government and local councils. These new towers have been made possible not only by the support of the Federal Government but as you've heard from Paul, tens of millions of dollars from state government and local councils. And in addition as you heard to the 429 new base stations, we've been able to innovate and take some very new and interesting technology in small cells, which are small cells which cover a small amount of area which provide 4G data coverage, and that's an incremental investment over and above the 165 million from Telstra.
As the Telco with the biggest presence in both the bush as well as urban Australia, we know how important high speed mobile access can be to supporting local communities, businesses, tourism, and education. So we're pleased, therefore, that with our mobile towers and the small cells we'll be reaching 670 areas that don't previously have coverage from Telstra over the next three years as part of this program, so they too can enjoy the benefits of mobile connectivity. I'd like to close by thanking the Prime Minister, the minister, the parliamentary secretary, and the government for their leadership to enable us to bring Telstra's best network, Telstra, to more communities across regional Australia. Thank you.
[Applause]
SPEAKER:
And I'll now ask Dan Lloyd, the Director of Strategy at Vodafone to come and speak on behalf of Vodafone.
DAN LLOYD:
Thank you very much indeed. We're delighted to be here. Vodafone is delighted to welcome the funding for 70 base stations across New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria under the Mobile Black Spots Programme. We're looking forward to expanding our presence in a few selected communities where we feel we can really make a difference, and really demonstrate what you can do if you design the incentives of these sort of programmes to deliver, not just coverage, but competition as well.
Many mobile customers in regional Australia have been disadvantaged for far too long, not only with inadequate coverage, but also a lack of choice. Now this programme is I think the best step forward in a long time towards giving, not only better coverage, but a chance to have a choice of mobile operators. That's a fundamentally different and forward looking scheme. I want to thank Minister Turnbull and the Parliamentary Secretary Paul Fletcher, of course - who has done all the real hard work for developing and implementing the programme, and to do it in line with what every day Australians tell us that they want - mobile coverage, mobile choice.
We're determined to make a long term commitment to offering choice for people in regional Australia. We've invested $3 billion over the last three years, and this programme gives us a key opportunity to extend that network into regional Australia. We've been actively engaging with local MPs, with senators, councils, businesses, community groups, in order to maximise the benefit that we can deliver through this scheme. Many of the MPs and councils have been making strong representations on behalf of many communities. We've been listening to them and working with them in order to prepare this bid.
It's really important that the whole industry maximises this opportunity. The scheme is important not only because it subsidises the build of infrastructure, but it also requires industry to work together, to share the infrastructure, to negotiate co-building of infrastructure, co-location of equipment, sharing of transmission. And this second step of the programme I think will deliver an exponential return for regional Australia. So we invite other mobile network operators to co-invest in our sites, to share our equipment, and we look forward to discussions with the other operators about how we can leverage that opportunity in return.
This will deliver even greater benefits for regional Australia, and it's only right that public money delivers the maximum benefit in terms of coverage and choice. We really welcome the announcement of further funding, and we look forward to working with the government and local communities in order to expand this scheme and this opportunity over time so we can deliver the most we can for regional Australia. Thank you very much indeed.
[Applause]
SPEAKER:
Before we take questions, I'm going to ask Paul a question. Paul can you just perhaps explain the different colours on the maps and what the maps signify please?
PAUL FLETCHER:
So if you look at the maps here, they show in the purple the expected handheld coverage from a base station. That means coverage when you are standing on the street or by the side of the road holding a mobile phone in your hand. The orange areas around the purple areas show expected coverage if you're using an external antenna on a vehicle. And so those are two standard measures of coverage used in the mobile industry.
The other point I want to make clear is these maps show the coverage that's predicted to come from the base stations to be built under this programme. We do not attempt to show the extent of incremental coverage - that's to say, how much of that is new beyond what's presently available. Although I should make absolutely clear that we certainly measured that very carefully in determining which base stations would be funded under the programme.
SPEAKER:
Very good. So, thank you. Now, the Member for Indi [laughs].
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
PAUL FLETCHER:
So what we've said is that we expect the first base stations under this programme to be rolled out before the end of this year, and the programme will continue over a three year period. So by the end of three years we expect that the 499 base stations will be delivered. Now, having said that, the government will be carefully monitoring that, we'll be keeping people updated, so it will be up to the operators to determine the roll out schedule. We will be monitoring that and keeping people updated, and I'm confident that the operators will be working as quickly as they can to get as much of it done before three years as they possibly can.
SPEAKER:
Sarah Henderson from Corangamite.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
PAUL FLETCHER:
Well thanks Sarah, and thanks indeed for hosting me on that visit, and I'd like to thank all of my colleagues in the room who posted me on visits to just about every corner of our very large country. The visits were very important in developing the policy framework, developing the rules, the guidelines under which this funding was allocated. For example, it helped us to think through the right weighting between new premises that get covered, kilometres of major transport routes and so on. So there's a number of features of the guidelines which reflect the benefits of those consultations. It was a very, very useful process.
Once we set up the guidelines, then the individual base stations were assessed according to the guidelines, and of course the carriers prepared their proposals, giving us the data we required to make those assessments. So the guidelines worked in almost a mechanistic or an algorithmic fashion, but what was very important was getting the guidelines set up so that we got the policy outcomes that we wanted.
QUESTION:
[Indistinct] Love an affection that Paul received?
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
I just sort of trail along in his wake, you see. Can I just, in terms of- and it's an important point but … and Paul is averted to it, but I'll just be a bit more explicit. The Department of Communications has done a really outstanding job in managing this programme. This has been a very, very objective scientific assessment. There are no- there were no whiteboard moments of the kind that's happened in previous governments. This is a very, very objective assessment, and Jo Grainger and the team, and the department, and the secretary Gerry Clark has taken a lot of interest in this as well. They've done a really outstanding job working with Paul and his staff and me and my staff as well. But I do want to pay a big compliment to the unsung heroes of so much of the good stuff that happens in Canberra - the public servants.
QUESTION:
I'm just wonder, Paul, if you can direct me where I can get a good [indistinct]. For the last few months of me no personally having a mobile phone [indistinct]. Thank you very much.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Andy Penn has offered- Telstra can sort you out, and I'm sure Dan- Dan, Vodafone can help you. You can probably get a good- pretty good price. By the way, if anyone- if you'd like to ask some questions in this context of Andy or Dan, I'm sure they'd be happy to come up … But anyway, let's just see how we go. Any other questions from the room? Please?
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
How many base stations are you getting, Rick?
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Sixty? This is- there's now … There's now base station envy, you see?
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well you've got a big chunk of Australia under your authority.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
PAUL FLETCHER:
Yeah look there's money available in this financial year. We have some final detailed contractual negotiations to do but they're all the broad principles have been set as part of the selection process. I think it's fair to say it's not the availability of the cash that's the constraint, it's the operational process of the rollout, it's the planning approvals, so one thing I'd say to every Parliamentary colleague here is please encourage your local councils to be aware of the importance of mobile coverage, mobile based stations do need local government planning approval but we obviously want to see if that can happen as quickly as possible. Having said that I do want to acknowledge the cooperation and active interest of hundreds of councils around the country, quite a number of councils have responded to the invitation to offer assistance in various ways in kind and in a few instances even in cash.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Don Randall, Canning.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
PAUL FLETCHER:
Yeah we'll certainly be able to make that information available but essentially it's the application of the guidelines, a couple of factors - it's the locations that the mobile network operators came forward with, with proposals for and then it's the application of the guidelines to decide which of those got funded.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Look can I just to elaborate on that Don, with very very few exceptions all of the locations which the carriers- that's Telstra and Vodafone applied - proposed to build, subject to getting support from us are included in this. So if - with only a couple of exceptions. So virtually everything that they proposed made the cut. This is why this scheme's been so successful because we've got a massive Telecom bang for the Government buck and that's what - that's really the big achievement so if you have got a black spot area or a location which has not been funded in this round, two points: one the reason it isn't being funded is because the carriers almost certainly didn't propose to build there in the first place and clearly we can't compel them to build somewhere they don't want to but secondly wait there's more, hope springs eternal and better than hope, there's $60 million in round two and so what we're going to do is keep the engine - you know we've got the guidelines, we've got the algorithm, we're just going to keep the engine moving and we will hopefully if the states come to the party - I mean for example, South Australia, would have loved to have seen more base stations in South Australia but the South Australian Government didn't put any money in. Hopefully Mr Weatherill will see the success of this program and the kudos that other state governments are getting because of their participation and in round two, the South Australians will put some money up as well.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
ANDY PENN:
Perhaps if I can answer that, you're absolutely right, one of the clear intentions of this program is that a very large number of base stations in locations which would not be economic ordinarily can be provided because the cost is being shared with industry, between industry and government and so there's a large number of base stations where that has been achieved, I'll be very happy to talk to you further about your particular base station and see where we can go [indistinct].
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Okay Barnaby and then Bruce…
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
[Laughter]
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well done, Bruce and then Eric, yeah.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
PAUL FLETCHER:
Well Bruce why don't I have a crack at that first and then if Telstra wants to add to that I'm sure they will. Look the key cost components of a base station are certainly the civil engineering which includes the construction of the tower, the electronics, the backhaul, so the connection back into the network if you've got to build optical fibre that's very expensive, microwave is also expensive So - and then power is very important in remote areas as well. So certainly a tower, the fact there's an existing tower reduces the entry cost but in these remote areas we are often talking about a cost that can easily be $1 million or more. So what we're seeing with this program is it's certainly been helpful where there's been power already, where there's been a tower already, that's made it easier for the operators to propose to build base stations there and I'm sure that will continue to be the principle.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Eric.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible question].
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Thank you.
PAUL FLETCHER:
With that I think unless there's any other questions we can probably draw the formal proceedings to a close and there'll be the opportunity to get some photographs with colleagues. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
[ends]
