Mandated Mobile Roaming: Separating Fact from Fiction

Every day, regional Australians rely on connectivity to run businesses, keep in touch with family and access essential services. That's why the debate matters.

The question isn't whether regional Australia deserves those outcomes. It's how best to deliver them.

First, what is mandated mobile roaming?

Mandated mobile roaming would require mobile providers to give customers of other networks access to their coverage when they move outside their own provider's footprint.

For example, if an Optus customer travelled into an area without Optus coverage but Telstra coverage was available, their phone could automatically connect to the Telstra network to make calls, send messages and use data.

On the surface, that sounds simple. If one network has coverage, why shouldn't everyone be able to use it?

It's a reasonable question. But it's also important to understand that not all roaming is the same. Mobile providers can and do enter into commercial roaming and network-sharing agreements where they make sense for customers and where costs, capacity and investment can be managed between providers.

At the heart of the Mobile Services Inquiry is whether access to mobile networks should be mandated by regulation rather than agreed commercially between providers and whether the benefits outweigh the costs, technical complexity and potential impact on future investment.

The concept is simple. The reality is far more complex.

Fiction: Mandated roaming will eliminate regional coverage gaps

Fact: Mandated roaming doesn't build new coverage. It redistributes what already exists.

This is probably the biggest misconception in the debate.

Mandated roaming doesn't build a single new mobile tower or extend coverage into areas where no network exists today. It simply redistributes access to existing coverage, while making it harder to justify the investment needed to create new coverage.

That's why investment matters. Over the last five years, we've invested more than $9.5 billion in our mobile network nationally, including $3.8 billion in regional Australia. During that time, mobile data demand more than tripled, requiring ongoing investment to expand coverage, capacity and resilience. Between 2021 and 2025, we added more than 1,000 mobile sites across Australia, including 435 sites in regional and remote areas. Those investments are helping connect more communities and improve service in places where building and maintaining network infrastructure is often most challenging.

If we want better connectivity in regional Australia, the focus needs to be on supporting ongoing investment in capacity, resilience, new technology and network expansion, not reducing the incentive to invest in improving capacity and resilience, introducing new technology or expanding network coverage.

The challenge is understanding why investment incentives matter. Think about a farmer spending millions of dollars on new fences, water infrastructure and equipment to improve productivity. If, after making that investment, anyone could use that infrastructure regardless of whether they contributed to it, there would be far less incentive to keep investing.

The same principle applies to mobile networks. When providers can no longer differentiate through coverage, the incentive to keep improving networks is reduced. That means less incentive to invest in additional capacity, resilience and new technologies, as well as building new sites, upgrading regional coverage and extending networks further into remote Australia. That's true for both the network with the superior coverage and the networks trying to catch up.

It's a point the ACCC recognised when it examined mandated roaming in 2017, finding that it could "harm the interests of consumers by undermining the incentives of mobile operators to make investments" in regional areas.

Fiction: Mandated roaming would improve access to Triple Zero

Fact: Mobile phones can already access Triple Zero through any available network

Many people understandably associate mobile roaming with safety.

The good news is that compatible mobile phone in Australia can already access Triple Zero through a feature known as "emergency camp-on". If your provider doesn't have coverage or their network is down, but another network is available, your phone will use that alternative network to call Triple Zero.

This isn't a new capability. Emergency camp-on has been a standard feature of Australian mobile networks for more than two decades and is used thousands of times every month, with around 87,000 camp-on calls occurring on average each month.

The telecommunications industry is also progressing Temporary Disaster Roaming (TDR), a targeted solution designed specifically for natural disasters. Unlike emergency camp-on, which is limited to Triple Zero calls, TDR enables customers in declared disaster areas to call or message family and friends, access data and online services, and stay connected using another provider's network if their usual network is unavailable. It is expected to be available ahead of this year's disaster season.

Unlike mandated roaming, TDR is geographically limited, activated only in specific emergency situations and carefully managed to ensure networks can continue to support emergency communications. It has been designed to improve connectivity during disasters without creating the capacity and investment challenges associated with permanent, nationwide roaming arrangements.

Fiction: Mandated roaming would automatically improve resilience during outages

Fact: Resilience is built, not shared

It's easy to assume that if one network experiences an outage, customers could simply move across to another provider.

But mobile networks are carefully designed around the number of customers they serve every day. They're not engineered to absorb millions of additional users without consequence. Adding large numbers of roaming customers creates pressure on network capacity, spectrum and backhaul links, which can increase congestion and degrade performance for everyone. In some cases, it may result in a failure to serve altogether.

More importantly, access and resilience aren't the same thing. Access is about being able to connect to a network. Resilience is about having multiple independent networks available if something goes wrong.

Commercial network-sharing arrangements can deliver cost efficiencies, but they can also increase reliance on shared infrastructure and reduce network diversity.

For example, following the Optus-TPG network sharing agreement, TPG decommissioned around 750 mobile sites in regional areas. While that may reduce costs for TPG, it also demonstrates that sharing existing infrastructure doesn't create new infrastructure or additional redundancy. Instead, it means there are around 750 locations across regional Australia where there are now fewer network options available in an emergency than there were before.

Where there may previously have been three separate mobile networks available for emergency "camp-on" access to Triple Zero, there may now only be two networks available. That's an important distinction because resilience isn't just about being able to access a network, it's about maintaining alternatives when parts of the telecommunications system fail.

Fiction: You can only access the coverage your provider offers today

Fact: Australians already have options to access additional coverage

Most modern smartphones support eSIM technology, allowing multiple mobile services to be active on the same device. That means customers have more flexibility than ever before to choose how they stay connected.

For example, someone whose primary service is with Vodafone or Optus can also add an eSIM on the Telstra network and use it when travelling to areas where Telstra has coverage available. It's a bit like carrying a spare tyre. You may not need it every day, but it's there when you do.

There is a cost to additional connectivity, regardless of how it's delivered. Some Boost Mobile pre-paid plans with access to the full Telstra mobile network work out at around $1 a day over the course of a year¹. Equally, any mandated roaming arrangement would need to recover the costs of providing that additional network access, with those costs ultimately reflected in the price of mobile services.

Australians are also gaining access to entirely new forms of connectivity. Satellite-to-mobile services are already extending coverage beyond the reach of traditional mobile networks. Telstra is the first provider in Australia to launch satellite-to-mobile messaging, and millions of customers have already connected via satellite in areas beyond the reach of our mobile network.

Looking ahead, initiatives such as the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation (UOMO), alongside satellite-to-mobile technology, have the potential to extend connectivity into areas where no terrestrial mobile coverage exists today. While mandated roaming is focused on sharing existing networks, satellite-to-mobile is focused on expanding Australia's connectivity footprint altogether.

Fiction: Mandated roaming will make mobile services cheaper

Fact: Customers will pay for the cost of roaming

Mobile networks aren't free to build, maintain or upgrade. Some argue that mandated roaming would increase competition and lower prices. The reality is more complicated.

If millions of additional customers are directed onto networks that weren't designed to carry that level of demand, providers would need to invest significantly more in capacity, spectrum and infrastructure to maintain performance. Those costs don't simply disappear. Any mandated roaming arrangement would need to account for those costs, and they would ultimately be recovered through commercial arrangements between providers and, in turn, likely reflected in the prices customers pay.

And price isn't the only way customers can pay.

Regional customers could also pay through a poorer network experience. Many regional communities already rely on infrastructure with finite capacity. If significantly more people are using the same towers and spectrum, congestion can increase, particularly during busy periods, reducing speeds and impacting service quality for the very communities roaming is intended to help.

Fact: Regional Australia deserves better connectivity

This is the point everyone agrees on.

The real challenge isn't deciding whether connectivity should improve. It's deciding how.

Mandated roaming may sound like a simple solution, but the future of connectivity will be shaped by much more than roaming alone. Satellite-to-mobile services, TDR, network resilience measures and continued investment are already changing what's possible.

Regional Australians deserve more coverage, stronger resilience and better connectivity.

The question for the Mobile Services Inquiry is whether today's policy decisions will help build that future or make it harder to achieve. Getting the policy settings right will help ensure providers can continue investing in the technologies and network improvements that will shape the next generation of connectivity.

¹ Boost Mobile $365 plan with 12-month expiry. Includes 365GB data, unlimited calls and texts to standard Australian numbers. 4G and 5G speeds capped at 150Mbps.