Keeping our regions open for business

Optus lodged its submission to the ACCC earlier this week to highlight the negative impact on consumers and businesses that would result from the proposed TPG/Telstra merger.

If this merger is allowed to proceed, customers will have less choice and be subject to higher prices.  Communities will also be more vulnerable during natural disasters if an alternative communications system doesn’t exist.

Regions need more communications infrastructure, not less

I have witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of floods and fires on our regional communities.

Communications were so critical at this time for everyone – those ringing for help, people trying to find reassurance that their loved ones were safe and our brave first responders who relied on communication to perform what was being asked of them. 

Our regions need more telecommunications investment, better connectivity, and improved services – and the proposed Telstra / TPG network merger is a very big step backward.

Growing Regions need more connectivity

Businesses and Industry throughout regional Australia are critically important to our nation’s economy. Technology – underpinned by connectivity – offers organisations of all sizes opportunities previously unimagined. 

To really improve outcomes, investing in more communications infrastructure is required to improve connectivity – and this is the opposite of what Telstra and TPG are proposing.

Organisations wishing to seize the advantages of emerging technology must be able to access it affordably. Competition fosters innovation and keeps downward pressure on prices. Without choice, businesses lose out.

The pandemic saw a diverse range of businesses start up and grow in the regions, overcoming the “tyranny of distance”. Many innovative businesses have created new job opportunities and provided a much-needed boost to local economies whose traditional industries were hampered by natural disasters. Communications and connectivity have been critical to this process.

The proposed merger risks these advantages and the future ones and with that, our nation’s economic potential.

We must continue to provide regional businesses with the competitive communications that underpins further improvements, ingenuity, and growth. Regional Australia won’t be the only beneficiaries of improved connectivity; as more parts of nations’s economy flourishes, so does all of Australia.

You can read more about Optus’ concerns with the proposed network merger here.