A 3 year social research project conducted by leading social researchers from the Australian National University, the University of New England and the University of New South Wales, recently examined the social impact of mobile telecommunications. The researchers found that more than 90% of respondents considered their mobile phone an indispensable part of their lives. More than half felt that their mobile phones helped them to balance their working and family lives and most participants felt more secure when carrying a mobile. In fact, nationally, more than 60% of calls to emergency services on 000 are now made from mobile phones.
Mobile telecommunications continue to make a profoundly positive impact on the day to day lives of Australians. Everyone wants their mobile service to operate when they need it but most don’t think about how that happens unless there is a Permit Application or an ACIF Consultation process in their local area. Many people do not understand how networks operate or are happy to divorce the relationship between the infrastructure and the services that they have come to rely on daily.
And this of course provides an inherent difficulty for the industry. However, it’s important to emphasise that reliable mobile services can only be maintained where facilities are located in reasonable proximity to the user. To provide reliable, continuous coverage, carriers need to install low-powered mobile phone base facilities close to where the mobile phone users are – in homes, businesses and places of work, schools, shopping centres, tourist and recreation centres, etc. Without them, mobile services would be limited and unreliable. |
INDUSTRY
