Poor coverage, outages and a lack of alternatives are driving complaints from regional Australians amid a telecommunications review and the approaching shut down of the far-reaching 3G mobile network.
Close to 52,000 complaints have been made about phone and internet services in regional, rural and remote areas since July 2021.
"We also understand these issues are likely to be the tip of the iceberg ... 46 per cent of Australians who experienced a telco challenge in the past 12 months did not lodge a complaint," the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has told an ongoing review into regional telecommunications.
The review is conducted every three years to identify issues and inform policies to address the digital divide between the nation's regions and its major cities.
That divide is further exacerbated for Indigenous communities, where remoteness, financial constraints and available services can pose further challenges, the review noted in April.
A man in a remote Indigenous community waiting six months to have his broken, unrepaired phone returned after a long journey to his telco's closest store to drop it off were among the anonymised case studies the ombudsman submitted to the review.
Another man spent six hours stuck in his crashed vehicle waiting for help, unable to call for emergency services, the ombudsman said.
Customers reporting poor service quality, lack of choice and delays in repairing far-flung faults made up the bulk of the 51,854 complaints the ombudsman received from regional areas from July 2021 to June 2024.
As well as natural disasters impacting infrastructure and connectivity, some regional customers face another problem in emergencies.
The last remaining 3G mobile carriers - Telstra and Optus - will switch off the service in late October, after rival TPG-Vodafone turned its off in January.
The shut down will also impact some older 4G mobile devices which force Triple Zero calls through the 3G network as well as other devices such as some EFTPOS machines, home security and medical alarms.
The service was due to end in August but was delayed to allow further time for upgrades, after the shut down was first flagged in 2019.
Customers can check whether they need a new phone by texting "3" to 3498.
The review committee has returned to WA, visiting Broome on Wednesday and Kununurra on Thursday, with plans to visit the Northern Territory in September, after consulting other regional areas around the nation since March.
Its report to the government is due by the end of December.
