Telcos call for productivity-boosting reforms: Remove roadblocks to digital infrastructure
18 August 2025: The Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) has called on the Commonwealth Government to make it easier to deploy digital infrastructure as a key measure to boost Australia’s productivity.
“Digital infrastructure is the foundation of the modern economy,” said ATA CEO Luke Coleman. “Productivity-enhancing technologies like AI are dependent on digital infrastructure – but archaic planning laws and red tape are a dead-weight on investment in 5G and fibre networks. We need reforms that unleash investment in the networks that will drive Australia’s future productivity.”
The ATA is one of 30 organisations supporting the Business Council of Australia’s call for reforms to improve productivity ahead of the Treasurer’s Economic Reform Roundtable this week in Canberra.
“If Australia is ever going to realise the productivity benefits of AI and digitisation, we need investment in high-capacity, resilient 5G and fibre networks. Telcos are tied up in red tape when they should be focussed on delivering the digital infrastructure Australia desperately needs,” he said.
The ATA provided a submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable process, highlighting three key roadblocks to digital infrastructure investment in Australia: regulatory cost and complexity, prohibitive planning laws, and high spectrum costs.
“The ATA is calling on the Government to work with industry to develop a digital infrastructure strategy that removes these roadblocks and unleashes investment in new networks.”
This strategy should include:
- Coordinated and strategic regulatory reform
- Harmonised planning laws to accelerate infrastructure builds
- Spectrum policy that delivers world-class connectivity
- Government support for productivity-enhancing digital infrastructure investments
“Duplicative and dysfunctional planning laws are holding back better connectivity in Australia. One major telco had to submit more than 3,000 land access notices, 1,000 construction certificates, 1,700 land access surveys, and 170 cultural heritage and environmental assessments to build a single new intercapital fibre route.”
“While regional Australia is crying out for better coverage, we’ve seen mobile tower applications trapped in planning purgatory for as long as a decade. Electricity connections to new towers can take years. Telcos need be able to invest in 5G with certainty – ongoing access to spectrum is a key part of that.”
