Australia govt wanting 100 percent mobile coverage

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tripper1000

1617 posts

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#3348345 27-Feb-2025 11:39

Q) How to create an expensive and uncontrollable monopoly that gouges customers?

A) Mandate Telco's all use the same foreign satellite provider.

Result: Worlds richest man laughs all the way to the (foreign) bank.

Australia already has 100% wireless phone coverage, it just isn't baked into cell phones, so only the people that need it, have and pay for it.

SomeoneSomewhere

1804 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#3348377 27-Feb-2025 14:44

One could pretty easily argue that people don't know (or don't admit) they need it until an emergency. Like with all sorts of add-on extras, people will skimp on their safety cases to argue it's not necessary because they don't want to spend the $100/month plus $2k for the handset. Even if that decreases to a $30/month add-on that works on consumer phones, takeup will still be low. Urban people get into trouble in coverage blackspots surprisingly regularly.

Shouldn't be mandated until competition arrives, though.

wellygary

8328 posts

Uber Geek

#3348383 27-Feb-2025 15:11

SomeoneSomewhere:

One could pretty easily argue that people don't know (or don't admit) they need it until an emergency. Like with all sorts of add-on extras, people will skimp on their safety cases to argue it's not necessary because they don't want to spend the $100/month plus $2k for the handset. Even if that decreases to a $30/month add-on that works on consumer phones, takeup will still be low. Urban people get into trouble in coverage blackspots surprisingly regularly.

Shouldn't be mandated until competition arrives, though.

Although Its a hard sell politically to make "battlers" in the suburbs of western Sydney fork out an extra $5 a month so that FIFO mine workers get cheaper/better mobile coverage....

The equity optics suck....

neb

11294 posts

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3348387 27-Feb-2025 15:37

SomeoneSomewhere: One could pretty easily argue that people don't know (or don't admit) they need it until an emergency. Like with all sorts of add-on extras, people will skimp on their safety cases to argue it's not necessary because they don't want to spend the $100/month plus $2k for the handset.

It's not the government's job to prevent the really determined from autodarwinating. If you're going to drive the Gunbarrel Highway with two cans of Fourex and a sandwich as supplies then that's your gamble, not the taxpayer's. A PLB is a few hundred dollars as a one-off expense, or you can rent them if you don't want to buy.

ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#3348393 27-Feb-2025 16:19

@wellygarry

The current labour govt in Aussie wont be around for much longer.

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