For regional and remote Australians, accessing reliable mobile coverage is a familiar and potentially dangerous, problem. But regional residents are hopeful election promises from the major political parties will lead to life changing improvements.
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00:00It's a picture perfect coastline around Esperance, but for paramedics like Paul Gawne, responding
00:10to emergencies in this region can be a challenge.
00:13Often there's a delay in people being able to communicate where they are. Sometimes we
00:19get cut off when they're ringing, sometimes we have to try and run to the top of a hill
00:24somewhere.
00:25In his line of work, the phone signal makes a big difference between life and death.
00:30Sometimes we might get there and then we need to call for backup. The information isn't
00:35quite complete and so we're expecting one patient, sometimes we might get three or four.
00:41The Labor government has pledged to deliver universal basic text and voice services nationwide
00:47if re-elected. This would rely largely on low earth orbit satellite technology. Farmers like
00:53Kirk Whiting say improvements are long overdue.
00:56Along the highway it's quite good. There's a few black spots, dead spots down through the
01:02rivers, but as soon as you leave the highway it's near on non-existent.
01:06This farm here has near zero phone signal.
01:10Poor mobile coverage makes it difficult to keep track of staff and run a business.
01:16Increasing the capacity and resilience of the existing mobile network was one of the key
01:21recommendations from the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review. The coalition says if elected it will
01:28improve regional telecommunications and access to high speed internet.
01:32Regional and remote Australians are urging politicians from all parties to take their concerns
01:37on board.
01:38Farming's here for as long as humans need to eat and the governments on both levels need
01:43to back us in and give us the infrastructure we need.
01:46An argument to bring regional Australia up to speed with the rest of the country.
01:50The
01:51is
01:52the