Mobile coverage reaches a place the market will not serve

Seven rounds, more than a billion dollars, up to 1,400 base stations — and from December 2027 an obligation that would require coverage everywhere regardless. Two instruments for one problem, running at the same time.

telecommunicationsA single new base station in a regional or remote location, delivered through the co-investment programs draft compare across jurisdictions

940 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

7 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

19% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

0 days saved by concurrency
vs. 940 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

applicant	490d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
scheduling	180d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.
assessment	150d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
third party	120d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.

180 of 940 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A location has no adequate mobile coverage and no carrier will build there commercially.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	The location has no coverage assessment A place where coverage is absent and no carrier will build commercially.	—	assessment	—	0 estimate	—
2	Community or council nominates the location application Locations are nominated for consideration in a funding round. after The location has no coverage 850d slack	Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts	applicant	—	90 estimate	—
3	Wait for a funding round registration Applications are accepted in competitive rounds. after Community or council nominates the location 670d slack	Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts	scheduling	—	180 published	—
4	A carrier bids for the location application A mobile network operator decides whether to include the site in a bid. after Wait for a funding round 550d slack	Mobile network operator	third party	—	120 estimate	—
5	Assessment and co-investment rate set assessment Funding share determined by how many operators will share the infrastructure. after A carrier bids for the location 400d slack	Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts	assessment	—	150 published	—
6	Build and commission the site application after Assessment and co-investment rate set	Mobile network operator	applicant	—	400 estimate	—
7	Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation commences decision only if triggered From 1 December 2027, carriers required to provide baseline outdoor voice and SMS coverage across Australia. Triggered when: The obligation commences and covers the location, making the co-investment pathway unnecessary for baseline voice and SMS. after The location has no coverage 575d slack	Australian Communications and Media Authority	statutory	—	365 published	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

A subsidy rate set by how much sharing the infrastructure delivers threshold
Projects where all three national carriers share the infrastructure can be funded up to 100 per cent. Projects with fewer operators get 50 to 75. The Commonwealth is not paying for a tower — it is paying more for a tower that carries everybody's customers.
Three instruments for one market failure, and no sign anyone compared them merge ~300d
Seven rounds, more than a billion dollars and up to 1,400 base stations, delivered one nominated site at a time — running alongside a proposed obligation that would require coverage everywhere from December 2027. Both are live, and nothing sequences them.

Sources

Mobile Black Spot Program: seven rounds, more than $1 billion invested, up to 1,400 new mobile base stations, with co-contributions from state and local governments and mobile network operators
Regional Connectivity Program Round 3 of $100 million and Mobile Black Spot Round 7 of $50 million; Round 8 awarded $21.1 million, closing for applications 28 August 2026
Co-investment rates: up to 100 per cent for projects involving all three national mobile network operators using active sharing or roaming; 50 to 75 per cent for co-location or fewer operators; $22.5 million for First Nations solutions contributing toward Closing the Gap Target 17
Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation announced 25 February 2025, requiring Telstra, Optus and TPG to provide reasonable and equitable access to baseline outdoor mobile coverage from 1 December 2027

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-regional-mobile-coverage.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.