The Albanese Government has announced a trial of fixed voice services by Scyne Advisory.
This trial will also assess the performance of Low Earth Orbit Satellites (LEOSats) to support the government’s efforts to enhance mobile connectivity for more Australians.
Scyne Advisory will independently deliver the fixed voice service trials, with work already underway to progressively set up trial sites across 50 regional and remote locations across Australia.
The trials will track the reliability and quality of voice calls and test the impacts of weather conditions on services.
Data from the trial will also help the Albanese Government to better understand how LEOSat services perform to support voice services across a representative range of regions across Australia, including over the northern Australia wet season. Existing NBN Co fixed wireless and satellite services will also be trialled in parallel to provide a comparison.
Data collected will be independent of industry and be made publicly available next month.
“The Albanese Government is committed to modernising telco services in the interest of all Australians, particularly those living in rural and regional Australia, and I look forward to data from the trials helping us to consider and deliver a more modern and effective universal service framework,” commented Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP.
“The government has been clear it will proceed on a consultative and transparent basis. Stakeholder views on delivery and funding issues will be carefully considered to help inform future decisions on a more modern and fit-for-purpose framework.”
The government has also made public a summary of the input it received from stakeholders during a recent public consultation on modernising the funding and delivery of universal telecommunications service arrangements.
Overall, the public consultation process demonstrated there is support for change to universal service arrangements to better reflect evolving consumer needs and the emergence of new alternative technologies.
“The government’s focus is that universal service arrangements continue to deliver for consumers, can be more flexible to accommodate changes, and that we have related funding arrangements for baseline services that are efficient and sustainable.”
Stakeholders suggested that a more flexible and technology-neutral approach would be preferred, including the adoption of modern networks and services that are best suited to each premises and future-proof arrangements.
There was also general agreement that simpler funding arrangements would better reflect the market and enable greater efficiency and sustainability.
The government is still debating how to modernise the Universal Service Obligation, but it is considering stakeholder feedback and the trial data to guide future actions.