Finding collaborative ways to fund improvements to mobile infrastructure services across regional Australia will be the focus of the opening public hearing today (23 November) with one of the nation's largest telecommunications tower companies Indara Digital Infrastructure.
The House Communications and the Arts Committee will hear evidence from Indara for its parliamentary inquiry into co‑investment in regional mobile carrier infrastructure.
Committee Chair, Mr Brian Mitchell MP, outlined the majority of mobile infrastructure was not co-located, especially in regional areas. The Committee wants to better understand why the rates of co-location for Australia's major mobile providers dramatically decline as they move from urban to regional and remote areas. The Committee will be seeking Indara's views on whether co-investment is the best tool to encourage multiple telecommunications providers in regional areas to invest in and share 'multi-carrier' mobile towers to improve the range and reliability of their services.
Public hearing
Witness: Indara Digital Infrastructure
Time and date: 12:40pm AEDT 23 November
Location: Committee Room 1R6 Parliament House Canberra
The inquiry's terms of reference and information about the Committee may be found on the Committee's webpage.
