East Gippsland Shire Council has welcomed the release of the Federal Government’s draft legislation on its Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation (UOMO) that will expand mobile service coverage across the country.  

The UOMO will require mobile carriers to provide reasonable access to mobile services outdoors almost everywhere across Australia, benefiting remote and rural pockets of East Gippsland.  

Council has extensively advocated for more reliable telecommunications infrastructure in the region, particularly following the 2019-20 bushfires. This work has included ongoing collaborative work with telecommunications providers, working in partnership with the Australian Local Government Association and developing a unified approach with other Gippsland councils.  

Priority advocacy areas have included voice and data telecommunications becoming a regulated essential service, mandating emergency roaming for all carriers, mandatory infrastructure reliability standards, investment to enhance the reliability of infrastructure in the context of climate change and a community partnership model in remote areas to maintain backup infrastructure prior to and during events.

Mayor Cr John White said this new legislation will be critical in securing more widespread and reliable telecommunications coverage for the shire’s rural and remote communities, offering more equitable access to services and digital technologies.  

“This obligation is a step in the right direction; however, further improvements are needed to strengthen telecommunications services and infrastructure in our shire. Key areas of focus for our future advocacy efforts include improvements to emergency roaming, mandatory service reliability standards and more reliable back-up infrastructure for remote areas,” John said.  

“These changes to the way telecommunications services are delivered in East Gippsland will help our towns to become more reliably connected, especially at critical times like when disasters strike and our remote communities become isolated.  

“We will continue to proactively campaign for these improvements on behalf of our communities and work with all levels of government to encourage more reliable and equitable telecommunications access that supports community safety and connectedness.” 

Other telecommunications improvements introduced in the shire include supporting our local incident management plans with the installation of Sky Muster satellites at 45 identified assembly areas, as part of the national Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters (STAND) program.

“The work we completed with these communities across East Gippsland before and after Black Summer ensured the successful rollout of the program, which included 38 sites with AV/TV installations to support utilising the STAND systems,” John said.

In addition, high-risk and more remote sites had more resilient power systems installed, with some remaining sites set to receive these upgrades in the future.  

Emergency screens strategically located across the shire also provide emergency information, and the new East Gippsland Emergency Dashboard can assist the community to be better prepared and informed before, during and after an emergency

‍Interested members of the community can participate in the consultation process for the draft legislation for the mobile coverage obligation by heading to infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say.

Feedback is open until 19 October 2025. 

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