Infrastructure Australia’s (IA) first audit in 2015 was the first national picture of Australia’s infrastructure challenges

IA’s second audit released in August 2019 seeks to identify challenges and opportunities across Australia’s transport, social infrastructure, energy, water and Telecommunications sectors.

IA also considered the key future trends facing Australians as well as the direct views of infrastructure users across Australia.

This report provides a brief summary of the Telecommunications chapter within Infrastructure Australia’s (IA) recent ‘An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs’.

The Australian telecommunications sector continues to see debate across a range of issues including nbn pricing and retail service provider margins, regional infrastructure programs, the future for 5G take-up, the ceased rollout of TPGs planned mobile network, opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) networks and the potential threat of 5G fixed wireless broadband substitution. As such, we believe Infrastructure Australia’s telecommunications audit along with its planned development of an ‘Infrastructure Plan’ and ‘List of Priorities’ will raise the debate across public and private sectors. Submissions on the results of the infrastructure audit will close on the 31 October 2019.

Contents

Key takeaways

Introduction

Telecommunications infrastructure and services enable productivity and innovation

• Mobile blackspots
• 5G service opportunity vs potential planning challenges
• Maximising NBN Investment
• Social Inclusion and Affordability
• Business Affordability

List of charts/tables

Figure 1. Attitudes towards 5G technology

Figure 2. Australian mobile and fixed broadband speed rankings

Figure 3. Digital inclusion is lower for those experiencing disadvantage and in rural areas