Basic mobile coverage is now law, but only Starlink can offer it

Amid a busy sitting week in Canberra last week, you would be forgiven for missing a new law that could affect the lives of millions of Australians.

For the first time telecommunications companies will be required to provide a baseline level of mobile coverage across the country.

But a lot of the details are yet to be worked out and the timeframes yet to be settled.

What's new?

While 98 per cent of Australians use their mobiles to make calls, coverage is only available across less than a third of country's landmass, and sometimes only through one provider.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the new Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation (UOMO) bill would ensure Australians were covered "nearly anywhere" outdoors.

"It requires mobile network operators, who are Telstra, Optus and TPG, to provide baseline outdoor voice and text coverage throughout Australia," she said.

"Secondly, it gives me as minister the ability to set standards regarding mobile services, so things like reliability or fault rectification."

The bill updates the existing Universal Service Obligation, which only mandates access to fixed lines and payphones.

Telcos could meet their obligation using land-based infrastructure, such as mobile towers, but it is expected vast areas will be covered by Low Earth Orbit satellites, known as LEO Sats.

How does it work?

The direct-to-device or direct-to-mobile technology is different to how many Australians might already use satellite to access internet through NBN's Sky Muster or Elon Musk's Starlink, which requires a receiver.

To get reception direct to a mobile it needs to be able to connect directly to satellite, which means you need to be outside.

It is technology that only Starlink can currently provide, but Ms Wells said the new law was about "getting ahead of the game".

"We're hoping to put in place the conditions through these laws that allow Australian entrepreneurship to create, innovate and come up with technology that we can select over things like Starlink," she said.

"But at the moment, regional Australians need connectivity … so we need to get them a better service, we need to ensure that telcos lift their game."

Telstra already provides a direct-to-device satellite text messaging service through Starlink.

But it uses existing spectrum and is available to certain customers on certain phones and cannot be used to contact Triple Zero (000).

Industry and consumer advocates have broadly welcomed the bill, but there are also parts they take issue with, for very different reasons.

"Direct-to-device technology is a very new technology, it has not been widely tested or commercialised," Australian Telecommunications Alliance chief executive Luke Coleman said.

Mr Coleman said the "special spectrum required for satellite services" was yet to be allocated and the technology still needed to be integrated into networks.

"There's still a few things that the industry needs to get through before this becomes a normal operational commercial service," he said.

He said with no plans for Australia to launch its own sovereign LEO Sat capability, telcos would be left to come up with commercial agreements.

"We are talking about services in areas that are by definition not commercially viable," he said.

"So, a real part of the challenge is how these can be sustainably funded."

The Australian Communications Consumer Advocacy Network (ACCAN) took a very different view.

"[The satellite technology] is already being used around the world," the network's chief executive Carol Bennett said.

"We don't want it to become situation where only those who can afford to access this get access because … it'll lock them out of being able to participate fully in the economy if they can't achieve access to this technology."

What's still to be worked out?

There is a lot of ministerial discretion in this bill.

The minister for communications will have the power to determine what the baseline will be in terms of quality of calls and texts, where it will reach, what it will cost, how it is funded, if it will include Triple Zero capabilities, when it will be delivered and fault rectification measures.

Ms Bennett said while ACCAN supported the bill, there were "missed opportunities" by not supporting amendments proposed by the Greens and independent senator Jacqui Lambie.

"Those amendments that ensure that reliability and performance standards and domestic mobile roaming can happen now," she said.

"Both measures would make a huge difference to the uplift in the reliability of telecommunication services, particularly in the regions, and to the safety net that's available to consumers when they don't have a provider that delivers them connectivity and they can roam onto another network."

Ms Wells said she wanted to consult industry and stakeholders before setting those standards, but pointed to a separate bill passed last week that increased penalties for telco breaches by 40 times to more than $10 million.

"I don't want to promise things we can't deliver," she said.

"We need to strike a balance between improving mobile services whilst acknowledging that these networks can be complex, can be expensive to maintain."

As for how Triple Zero obligations would interact with the new mobile standards, that is still to be worked out too with a broader review of the Triple Zero Custodian currently underway.

When will it start?

The default start date in the bill is December 31, 2027, but there is discretion for the minister to delay that until the end of 2030.

Ms Wells said she was "ambitious" and wanted it in place by December 1 next year.

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance indicated that was unlikely.

"On the current trajectory, we still need the spectrum to be allocated for this service to become operational," Mr Coleman said.

"Things would weigh in favour of delaying the start date until the market has developed a bit more."