Australia’s vast distances and sparsely populated areas, together with the rapid changes in communications technology, present tremendous opportunities for new broadband services. The Australian Telecommunications User Group (ATUG), a not-for-profit association of business users such as Qantas and American Express, believes these must be open to fair competition to ensure better prices and higher service quality.

Rosemary Sinclair, the managing director of ATUG, says that the uptake of mobile technology has been fast in Australia. Initially mobile voice service uptake was driven by business demand, then individual consumers realized the advantages and now Australia has a penetration rate of over 100 percent, which means that Australia now has more mobile phones than people.

Now consumer experience is driving uptake as consumers appreciate the value of new ways of communicating and transacting business. For example, mobile broadband services are being used to deliver mammography results quickly to patients in rural Australia and pictures of suitable properties to house buyers.

Sinclair says that the consumers’ adoption of technology has an impact on telecoms market trends from on-line transactions to streamed content; from e-mail to social networking; and from commodities price services to the weather services so vital in regional Australia. These developments are in turn fuelling the growth of the digital economy.

But the availability – or lack – of services poses a challenge for the industry, Sinclair says. Although progress has been made, ATUG would like to see other mobile operators match Telstra’s high level of coverage because more companies providing more services would promote competition and help the consumer.

Sinclair says ATUG looks forward to the rollout of Optus and Vodafone 3G services to reach more of the population. In ATUG’s experience, competition between providers has driven much better prices for end users, which in turn drive faster uptake of new services.

Affordability of services is also paramount for the success of the rollout of the next generation of broadband. “If we have broadband everywhere, but it is not affordable, as a country we will not have the opportunity for innovation and services that otherwise would be possible,” Sinclair says.

 “Until everyone is connected, you cannot transform business and government services. Otherwise, you would create two parallel systems, one for those broadband-enabled people and one for everybody else.”

Sinclair says one of ATUG’s aims is to see senior school students in any part of Australia provided with access to any curriculum subject through broadband services – including mobile platforms.

Australia’s vast distances and small populations in remote areas also pose challenges for the health sector. Updating the skills of healthcare professionals in remote areas is now possible using mobile and fixed broadband platforms, such as one program delivered by the Rural Health Education Foundation.

“The government has an important role to play to ensure that both businesses and communities get access to the necessary skills and customer support to thrive in the digital economy, helping everyone profit from high quality telecommunications services in a competitive environment,” Sinclair adds.

The Australian Telecommunications Users Group is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization of Australian telecommunications users and has been working for better choice, value and services in the sector since 1981.  

ATUG's initial goal was achieved by the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in 1997, when the new policy framework of open competition brought significant benefits to end users.

Since then, ATUG's mission has been to continue both to represent the interests of users through ongoing debate on the effectiveness of telecommunications policies and to lobby hard for further change.

ATUG has already contributed to major reforms, such as number portability, broadband access and pricing, regional services and best practice procurement.

Some of the organization’s latest projects relate to making international roaming affordable, as well as intelligent infrastructure focused both on energy optimization and transport, where the infrastructure can provide information on the traffic situation, and provide both time and transport alternatives in the event of congestion.


Carmen López-Clavero