2015 Regional Telecommunications Review

ICPA Queensland Inc.

Case Studies & Member’s Comments

Case Study 1

INTERNET:

Our property is situated in Queensland’s Gulf Country approximately 71 km from our closest town which has a resident population of approximately 180 persons. We are on a 5/10GB ABG plan. Due to anniversary dates for converting to ISS without penalty, ISS was fully subscribed before we were eligible.

We need to use that 5GB to conduct:

·  Our business – accountancy, banking, product research/purchasing. I experience regular and frequent dropouts during banking, large files can take up to 20-30mins to receive/large file and uploading large files is impossible – it just times out.

·  Liaise with our 3 children’s boarding institutions (with one of our children having special needs we have at times quite frequent interactions) and both of these schools have moved to an online platform to access key information/forms, essential information regarding curriculum/camps/booking of interviews/purchasing of uniforms etc. One of the school’s interactive platforms that would potentially allow us, as boarder parents, to achieve a greater level of direct and interactive participation in our child’s learning and co-curricular activities is largely inaccessible to us because of slow speed (forms time out before they can be uploaded and are lost. I recently tried to complete a learning survey for our child 3 times and on each occasion it timed out and all information was lost) and the formatting of the platform is data heavy thus eating into my plan each time I access e.g. all photos etc. are in hi-resolution which increases download time significantly.

·  My husband is Mayor of our local Shire and the cloud and email is used as the key method for delivery of correspondence, reports etc. and at times these can be quite large files. We are unable to access the cloud platform utilised by Council at home due primarily to slow speed. He has to wait until he can go into town to download this content – the platform constantly sends out reminders until he accesses and assigns the files.

·  Our involvement in other groups also, due to distance, utilises internet to disseminate and gather information from members. These groups are local government, industry, educational and community related and whilst not all compulsory activities form a valuable part of our “whole” personal and positive state of mental health.

·  Our staff (4-5) also expect to be able to access emails and social media sites on a regular basis. We have to place limitations upon their use (as they have to share our 5GB plan) and whilst we try to offer a variety of methods to meet this (satellite internet, legal mobile phone signal booster) none give them what they would consider sufficient access.

·  Additionally as part of his salary package, we provide an internet connection via ISS for our head stockman. He and his wife have a lot of difficulty accessing the web and emails on their service unless it is after 9 p.m. or before 7 a.m. On the weekend they have little to no success. As newlyweds they were to have an interactive interview in which they viewed their photos online with their photographer and chose photos for their albums. This was impossible to do and arrangements had to be made for all media to be put on a USB stick and posted. Once received, they then discussed the choices via a phone consult. This was not the case when we first installed this service approximately 3 years ago – speeds etc. were good, timeouts were negligible and internet was available on demand (within the parameters of their plan). We have anecdotal evidence from other regional businesses that this is a real issue in staff attraction and retention and has impacted upon their ability to conduct their business.

·  I would like to undertake some further learning but the restrictions caused by our internet – data availability and speed – mean it would be very difficult to do so I have delayed my educational aspirations at this point in time. When our children were undertaking distance education we found it very challenging to meet the digital demands of the curriculum delivery given the constraints of our plan and speed.

TELEPHONY:

·  We have 7 landlines on our property. Two are placed at mustering camps as a general communication tool and for Work Place Health & Safety purposes. We have four lines for staff usage and one for our use as a business. We rely heavily upon telephone to undertake daily business, access medical assistance from RFDS (our only medical response option) and maintain regular communication with family (including unwell parents), schools and community. Two people here have medical conditions that may require assistance at short notice. Many of our community and several local government obligations are undertaken by teleconferencing facilities with this increasing over the wet season due to inaccessibility to town to undertake face to face. We keep two satellite phones as backup however due to cost, voice delays and periods when satellite connection is unavailable these could not be considered as a long term replacement option.

·  Over the years we have had long periods without phone access with such instances increasing over the Wet season – due in part to inaccessibility to affect repairs, lightning strikes on key infrastructure, moving of key infrastructure in the black soil, wildlife moving into the comparative dryness of key infrastructure (ants, lizards and snakes) and moisture accessing key infrastructure. Consecutive days of inclement weather mean that the battery banks which run our systems get low as they rely on solar power to work and this can also put our phones out. The worst case was 3 months without telephone but we often have periods of over a week and have had several of at least 10 days.

·  Small businesses within our Shire report issues with the use of EFTpos – which relies on telephony to work. Having the closest bank at least 250 km away means a heavy reliance on EFTpos and internet banking. Businesses have suffered due to an inability to sell product, travellers have had negative experiences (and therefore given negative advice to fellow travellers with impacts in turn upon remote businesses) trying to purchase goods and fuel. When significant local events are on the whole system cannot cope with the increased traffic and shuts down. During a key festival event in our local in 2014 there was limited EFTPOS (no guarantees at any time – just more luck of the draw if it worked), mobile and internet coverage for 3 days which was very frustrating for businesses, attendees and event promoters. At this year’s rodeo in the next town over (approximately 165km away) our staff who were there for 3 days had no mobile and internet coverage for the whole weekend, had trouble buying items from both the town and mobile shops that were selling items at the rodeo e.g. boots, hats, jeans which they wished to purchase for work as well as foodstuffs and petrol to return home.

·  We have limited mobile coverage – intermittent at nights, none during the day and better in summer than winter. It is not a reliable alternative and we have tried legal boosters, Yagi antennas etc. and whilst it does mean we get more bars therefore a stronger signal it does not mean we get mobile coverage more often than before.

This is a key reason why internet and telephone delivery have to be provided via separate mediums. On one occasion about 4 years ago over half the Shire was without phones due to a snake decamping into the Telstra infrastructure and shorting out the entire system. Phones were out for many weeks, roads were cut due to wet season influence and many people’s internet was also down due to inclement weather (meaning the satellite signal was unable to be picked up due to cloud cover and/or rain). We had to resort to UHF between neighbours where possible and utilising a network of neighbours until a message could be gotten to someone who had phone and/or internet to relay a message to the wider world/intended recipient. Unfortunately due to the size and remoteness of some of the properties in our area UHF was not always successful as the base station was too far from other properties for the transmission to be picked up and several properties were loaned a satellite phone from the local council who hired a helicopter to deliver the equipment .

We have been told that one of the potential reasons for delay in rectifying faults is the paucity of replacement parts and the location of those parts and the time therefore required to deliver them to the local service centre. We have two technicians servicing an area west to the NT border, northto Kowanyama, south to approximately 180km north of Cloncurry and East towards Georgetown including islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They do their very best at all times but it is a large region to cover and at times it is physically impossible to provide a prompt response.

The local Council faces significant issues in conducting its business on behalf of its ratepayers as well as meeting corporate and governmental requirements. The use of a cloud based platform for storage and delivery of documents has created potential innovative and timesaving opportunities but speed has created issues with access and fullest utilisation of its capabilities. There are challenges with developing projects, accountancy and compliance obligations as well as attracting and retaining businesses to ensure long term sustainability of the Local Government Area. Additionally it is difficult to achieve improved operational efficiencies as there is no capability for example to undertake remote monitoring of key infrastructure e.g. water pumps, as well as monitor rivers etc. for safety reasons.

See below for recent speed tests in the main town in our shire:

Shire Town
Date / 23/8 / 11/3 / 31/3
Down / 1.37Mbps / 1.91Mbps / 1.21Mbps
Up / 0.68Mbps / 0.75Mbps / 0.25Mbps
Ping / 121ms / 126ms / 106ms
Connect / Cellular / Cellular / Wi-Fi
Lat / -17.7452 / -17.7445 / -17.7445
Long / 139.5467 / 139.5466 / 139.5483
Melbourne
Date / 8 May 2015
Down / 80.09Mbps
Up / 40.69Mbps

Case Study 2

We are a family owned and run beef grazing company that operates properties in several areas of Queensland as well as leasing some country in two different areas of the Northern Territory. Living in a rural and remote area leads us to depend heavily on internet and telephony in order to overcome the obstacles of distance and isolation. We and our staff who reside on the properties with us use the internet for business, schooling, health issues as well as personal use and socialization. We have several different internet set ups depending on what is available in the region of each property, and at present we are having the most difficulty with our satellite services.

Property 1 – 110 km from Camooweal on the Qld/NT border. 237,000 hectares.

We employ 6-8 full time staff, an additional 6-8 people seasonally (Mar- Dec) as well as contract mustering teams, truck drivers, helicopter pilots, agents and other occasional people who also need access to communications when at our property; 18 kms of gravel road south of house and 40kms gravel north of house, rest of roadway is mainly bitumen. Several river crossings cut access to the property off during the wet season. This property is located on a major thoroughfare for tourists and locals in both winter and summer who wish to access camping, national parks and fishing to the north. No mobile coverage on property, although a text can be downloaded in a couple of narrow places if on a hill and environmental conditions are favourable. There is a mine approximately 40 kms away with a private mobile tower, but we do not receive service from this due to the surrounding hills. A private fibre optic cable runs the length of our property approximately 500 m from the homestead and supplies mobile coverage to a larger mine to the north, but we do not have access to this coverage. Closest reliable mobile coverage is in sporadic positions along the Barkly Highway heading towards Mount Isa (200kms away) but not continuous until 35 kms outside of Mount Isa (165 kms from our property) or in the town of Camooweal itself if going west (110kms away). Coverage along the Barkly Highway should improve with increased service under the Mobile Black Spot Program- however we are 75kms from the Barkly Highway.

·  Telephony- All HCRC (High Capacity Radio Concentrator) service.

·  4 landlines as well as one blue phone which is used by staff and those needing assistance on the road. Being in a rough terrain area, break downs are very common for those travelling on the road that bisects our property and heads towards the national parks. We sometimes see 1-3 breakdowns a day in our area in peak season and travellers often need to make calls to request RACQ, spare tyres or other vehicle parts. Sadly, at times our phone is also needed for medical emergencies due to accidents on the road or unwell travellers. This is the only property located close to the road the entire length of the drive from Mount Isa to the township of Gregory, a distance of 314kms. The nearest alternative phone is the neighbour 38kms away or the quarry 20kms away. We have had significant trouble in the past with the phone systems being down in the area (the full area covered by the exchange, not just our property, so it can sometimes be over 100 kms to the next working landline.) Delays to repair the fault can range from 24 hrs to 3 weeks or more at times. Having technicians visit that are familiar with the HCRC system is becoming more difficult and we sometimes have to wait quite a while for parts needed for repair to be sourced. Telstra’s dedicated 1800 RRADIO fault line is greatly appreciated as we can be directed to customer service representatives who hopefully understand the situation where we live, however, when the phone is out, it can be difficult to report the fault without phone service. Often a relay via UHF radio from neighbour to neighbour is needed until someone in the district who still has phone service can be reached to report the phone outages for all. An email fault reporting service was established for RRADIO and it was also very effective, however in the last six months we have had 2 email fault reports not replied to. Many people in this district are on generator power, and some do not run their gen sets in the day time (there is no mains power available in this area)- so access of fault reporting via email for these people has to wait until evening when generators are running- and the email fault service may not be monitored at night (it used to be picked up the following day). When the phones are out for lengthy periods, it magnifies the use of the internet significantly as all messages and communication is then attempted via email- which can be very time consuming as well as not being able to be ‘immediate’ for replies and answers to questions. When we have the stock camps out working, they have no internet access, but need to be able to contact the station via satellite phone to receive information regarding truck movements, mustering and other plans. The drive back to the station to receive these instructions can be over 100kms round trip and very time consuming and frustrating for staff. In the past few months, we have had only a few, quickly resolved phone outages. However, it has not been uncommon for us to have 6 or more significant outages a year (several days to weeks) in the past. When our children were enrolled in Mount Isa School of the Air, these phone outages affected our children’s school lessons immensely. We currently have children away at boarding school and university. It can be difficult for schools to contact parents regarding their children when the phones are not working. For children who are studying away from home in order to access appropriate schooling, telephone service is crucial in order for them to receive emotional support from family when they face problems and to also remain part of the everyday lives of those back home when they are studying so far away.