Luke Coleman, CEO ATA Speech to CommsDay Wholesale Congress
CommsDay Wholesale Congress, Melbourne
9:25am Wednesday 15 October
Good morning everybody, and thank you Grahame and the CommsDay team for inviting me to speak today.
When I’d started drafting this speech a few weeks ago I had something completely different in mind.
But after recent events, my original idea didn’t feel like it fit the bill anymore.
It’s not often that the telecoms sector is front page news every day for more than two weeks straight. And when it is, it’s not a good thing.
As the CEO of one telco said to me recently, “Nobody ever thinks about telecoms until it stops working – then it’s all they think about.”
Like many of you in this room, I’ve spent my entire professional career in the telecoms industry, and I love this sector.
And I get the sense that morale is pretty low right now.
So my original speech idea got spiked, and I decided that what this audience probably needed the most right now is a concentrated dose of optimism.
A reminder that what we do is valuable.
A reminder that what we do is essential.
A reminder that what we do consistently makes Australians’ lives better.
So that next time you’re making new friends at a BBQ, you don’t have to lie and tell them that you work in the tobacco industry – you can proudly tell them that you work in the telecommunications sector.
And before anyone accuses me of being tone-deaf after the worst couple of weeks we’ve had, as a sector, in years, I’ll say this – recent events should remind us all of just how critical our sector is, and how every Australian depends on the services we deliver.
So I’ll divide this oration of optimism into three parts.
First, the telecom sector is delivering great outcomes for Australian consumers.
Second, the telecom sector is delivering great outcomes for the Australian economy.
And third, the telecom sector is fundamental to delivering on the Government’s productivity agenda – and reforms are needed to ensure that we can deliver to our full capability.
So let’s start with a much-needed reminder of how this sector is delivering for consumers.
It is a statement of objective fact we are delivering better services at lower prices for Australians, and we’ve been doing this consistently for decades.
Name me one other sector which has delivered more services at lower prices over the past decade?
Are you getting more electricity at lower prices than you were ten years ago?
Nope.
Are you getting more groceries at lower prices than you were ten years ago?
Uh-uh.
Clothing? Education? Healthcare? Housing? Transport? Education? Beer and ciggies?
No. No. No. No. No.
There is only one sector in the entire Australian economy which is delivering more services at lower prices than ten years ago.
And that is the telecommunications sector.
In that ten years, we’ve seen mobile broadband speeds increase from single-digit to triple-digit megabits per second as we progressed from 3G to 4G to 5G.
In that ten years, we’ve gone from having 5.5 million premises on DSL, to having more than 9 million premises able to connect to gigabit speeds on the NBN.
In that ten years, we’ve gone from 1.3m terabytes of total data downloaded annually to more than 53 million terabytes downloaded.
And, at the end of that ten years, Australians are paying 20% less for their telecommunications services than they were in 2015.
These are reasons to be optimistic about our industry.
Can you imagine if you were using 50 times more electricity compared to 10 years ago, but paying 20% less on your energy bill?
It’s unimaginable.
But that’s what the telecoms sector is delivering for Australian consumers.
And we’re delivering in many more ways than just lower prices and better services.
In that same period, complaints about telcos have dropped dramatically.
At the peak of the NBN rollout in 2017, complaints peaked at 8.7 complaints per 10,000 services.
Today, it’s just 2.7 complaints per 10,000 services.
In 2017, there were almost 160,000 complaints to the Ombudsman.
Today it’s less than 60,000.
And this is not a one-off. Complaints have consistently been less than 60,000 for the past few years.
Not only are consumers getting more and paying less, but they’re also far less likely to have a complaint about them.
These are reasons for optimism.
This sector is delivering great outcomes for Australian consumers.
But it’s more than just lower prices and fewer complaints.
The Australian Digital Inclusion Index measures how well Australians can access, afford and their ability to use digital technology.
In 2020, the index stood at 67.5.
By 2021 it had climbed to 71.1, and by 2023 it reached 73.2.¹
In that same period, the proportion of ‘highly excluded’ Australians dropped from 10.6% to 9.4%, and the number of ‘excluded’ Australians also dropped from 16.6% in 2021 to 14.2% in 2023.
And the gap between metropolitan and regional Australia has narrowed to just five points, with a similar improvement in outcomes for First Nations Australians.³
Digital inclusion is improving across every part of our society.
That’s a reason for optimism.
We are also closing the digital divide.
In 2015, people in regional and remote Australia had access to satellite broadband speeds of between 3-6 Mbps and monthly downloads of 3GB on NBN’s Interim Satellite Service.
Just ten years later, people in regional and remote Australia have access to LEO satellite broadband speeds of around 200Mbps, and unlimited monthly downloads on Starlink.
And there are more and more competitors entering the LEO satellite market every day.
NBN Co recently signed a contract with Amazon Kuiper to use Amazon’s LEO system to replace Sky Muster, which is expected to launch services in mid-2026.
The initial satellite constellation will include more than 3,200 satellites, which began deploying in April 2025 with its first operational launch.
There are currently 78 Kuiper satellites in orbit, after three successful launches in less than three months, and Amazon is continuing to increase its launch rates.
When you can get LEO speeds of 200Mbps no matter how remote you are, we’re almost at the point of asking if there is a digital divide anymore.
That is a massive reason for optimism.
The technological revolution of LEO satellites has solved policy problems that have plagued our sector for decades.
While Australia has mobile coverage to more than 99% of homes and businesses, this is only around a third of Australia’s landmass.
But now we’re on the cusp of having universal mobile connectivity, which is likely to go from trials to reality in just a few short years.
Direct-to-device satellite connectivity is already offering basic mobile applications text messaging and roadside assistance via satellite.
And LEO satellite operators have demonstrated voice connectivity and even video calls via standard mobile handsets.
By the end of the decade, it’s likely that most mobiles will have satellite chipsets as standard, complementing terrestrial mobile coverage in regional and remote areas.
That was the realm of science fiction just a few years ago – today it is just a matter of time until it’s unremarkable.
The digital divide is evaporating. This is a reason for optimism.
And not only is connectivity improving in regional areas, it’s going gangbusters in metro areas.
The launch of NBN’s Accelerate great program is expected to see average broadband speeds in the cities skyrocket, as 100Mbps service automatically switch to 500, 250 goes to 750, and 500 goes to a Gig per second.
To put this in perspective – just ten years ago the NBN was available to fewer than 500,000 premises. More than 5 million premises were on DSL.
And less than a decade later, NBN is offering up to 2Gbps to almost 10 million premises.
This is a reason for optimism.
The thing I love about these charts is that every good line is going up, and every bad line is going down.
Data consumption is up. Broadband speeds are up. Mobile data speeds are up. Digital inclusion is up.
And in the same period, prices are down. Complaints are down. Exclusion is down. The digital divide is down.
This is a sector that is delivering great outcomes for Australian consumers.
So let’s move on to part two: this sector is delivering great outcomes for the Australian economy.
This Government’s economic agenda is clear: As the Treasurer said in a headland speech shortly after the election: “Productivity is our primary focus”.
Productivity, he said, would be embedded “at the very core” of the Government’s second term.
Well, that’s another reason to be optimistic about the telecoms sector.
According to the Department of Communications’ Research Bureau, the telecommunications sector accounted for roughly 0.5 percentage points of national multifactor productivity growth between 2009 and 2020.
That might not sound like a big amount on its own – but it accounted for almost 15% of total market-sector improvement.
Australia’s telecommunications sector is not just improving productivity growth – it’s outperforming the broader market.
According to the Research Bureau, the sector’s multifactor productivity (MFP) grew nearly three times faster than the market average since 2013.
Value-added growth was around 6% per year, around three times more than the broader economy at 2%.[1]
This positions the telco sector as a key driver of national economic innovation and dynamism.
Australian businesses that utilise high-speed broadband see a marked improvement in productivity.
Businesses using high-speed fibre broadband report higher productivity: According to the Department’s research, 37% of fibre users said their productivity increased, compared with 29% for all businesses.[2]
Accenture Research released last year found that in the ten years from 2012 and 2022, the NBN had an uplift in Australia’s gross domestic product of $122 billion.
The report went on to predict that the NBN would add a further $399 billion in productivity benefits by 2030[3].
It also found that remote communities experienced up to 16 times the GDP benefit experienced in major cities, and that the most disadvantaged communities experienced 5 times the GDP benefit compared to relatively advantaged communities.
Digital infrastructure is the foundation of the modern economy, and a key driver of productivity growth.
It’s another reason to be optimistic.
Because this sector is delivering great outcomes for the Australian economy.
And we haven’t even mentioned AI yet.
AI is expected to drive unprecedented productivity gains – and it is all ultimately dependent on access to high-speed, resilient telecommunications networks.
Just two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a roundtable on the Government’s plan to capture the economic benefits of AI, Chaired by Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton.
The roundtable was held shortly after a speech by the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Tim Ayres, in which he described AI as “an incredibly valuable tool for advancing our government’s broader agenda for a Future Made in Australia.”
He added that “Australia needs to be ready, willing and able to host the digital infrastructure that will support growing AI demand.”[4]
It’s a reason to be optimistic that the Government recognises this sector’s role in that agenda.
The Productivity Commission estimates that AI could increase multifactor productivity by 2.3% or more over the next decade, translating to 4.3% labour productivity growth[5].
The Productivity Commission’s report on ‘making the most of the AI opportunity’ referred to studies that found substantial productivity gains associated with workers using AI for specific tasks.
This included software engineers coding up to twice as fast using AI tools, professional writing tasks being completed significantly faster, and call centre operators becoming 14% more productive using AI tools. [6]
It’s worth pointing out that this same report made the case for improving regional internet connectivity as a way government can influence uptake of digital – and by extension AI-enabled – services for regional communities.
As the Productivity Commission has repeatedly said in its various reports, it’s far too early to reliably predict the impact AI will have on productivity, as various sectors have only begun to harness its potential.
But there’s one thing we can say with certainty: Australia will only experience the productivity benefits of AI if we have the digital infrastructure in place to enable it.
And on that note, let me then turn to the third part of my speech: if the telco sector is fundamental to delivering on the Government’s productivity agenda – then we need reforms that enable the industry to deliver to its full capability.
The Commonwealth Government has the stated objective of making Australia ‘the most connected continent on earth’ – yet as a nation we still face prohibitive planning laws that disincentivise network deployment.
For example, one mobile network site funded under the Mobile Black Spot Program has been stuck in planning since 2015, seven sites have been in planning since 2019, and the application process just to connect power to some sites has taken more than two and a half years.
Similarly, major long-haul fibre-optic network deployments have faced significant delays and cost increases due to unpredictable roadblocks in planning processes, exacerbated by unclear and duplicative responsibilities between Commonwealth, State, and local Government departments and agencies.
Telcos need clear land access rights to build the digital infrastructure Australia needs.
But the ‘Carrier Powers and Immunities’ framework established under Schedule 3 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 has consistently seen its legal powers diminished under the weight of State-based land access rules, environmental approvals, and heritage laws which are duplicative and inconsistent.
Additionally, the legitimate legal rights of Traditional Owners groups over land access arrangements are complicated by inconsistent legislation, often resulting in open-ended consultation processes which lack established timeframes to conclude agreements.
Digital infrastructure is recognised in legislation as ‘critical infrastructure’ – so we need planning and deployment rules that treat it as such.
Telecoms infrastructure deployments are not granted the same exemptions from planning rules as other utilities that are typically subject to State legislation, rather than Commonwealth.
As a result, telcos are subject to many of the same regulatory burdens as other ‘essential services’ – but are not afforded any of the same benefits when it comes to deployment.
Telecoms networks are treated as ‘critical’ when they are impacted by outages – but not when they need to be built.
If we, as a nation, want to realise the full productivity benefits of a digitised, AI-enabled economy, then we need more telecoms infrastructure.
This would be greatly assisted by a reform roadmap to address the myriad inconsistent planning requirements for digital infrastructure deployments, including Commonwealth and State/Territory environmental approvals, heritage approvals, applications for power connections (and requirements for backup power), native title issues, and any other required approval processes which prevent the timely deployment of critical telecommunications infrastructure.
Clear and harmonised rules allowing for the efficient rollout of digital infrastructure would ultimately benefit Australia’s productivity, by unleashing greater data capacity on more competitive network infrastructure.
This would result in Australia’s data networks being more resilient, again benefitting Australia’s productivity by reducing outages and increasing network uptime.
A second measure to ensure that Australia’s telecoms sector can deliver to its full capability is certainty around access to spectrum.
A stable and predictable spectrum policy is not just for the telco sector – all sectors of the economy ultimately benefit from Australia having fast, reliable, and resilient mobile connectivity.
Australians expect telecommunications networks to be resilient and reliable – recent outages have provided a stark reminder of how critical mobile connectivity is.
So at a time when Australians need maximum certainty and stability in our mobile infrastructure, network operators need certainty in their access to spectrum.
Spectrum is the invisible backbone of Australia’s digital economy.
The value of spectrum should not solely be viewed by how much it raises for the Treasury Department.
The value of spectrum should be measured in its ability to support Australia’s productivity agenda, its necessity in delivering critical services, and its foundational role in keeping all Australians connected.
Every dollar spent on spectrum is a dollar that isn’t spent on network resilience, coverage, and competition.
Treating spectrum solely as a commodity to be auctioned risks prioritising the Budget over long-term public benefits.
At a time when Australia needs secure and resilient mobile networks more than ever before, stability and certainty in spectrum access must be the priority.
The third and final measure to ensure that the telecoms sector can deliver to its full capability is a national Digital Infrastructure Strategy.
The ATA provided a submission to the Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable process, calling on the Government to work with industry to develop a digital infrastructure strategy that includes:
- 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
The ATA and its members stand ready to work with the Government, regulators, and other relevant stakeholders to develop such a strategy.
So I’ll conclude by saying it again: even at a moment when morale across the industry is at a low ebb, there are many reasons for optimism.
The telecom sector is delivering great outcomes for Australian consumers.
The telecom sector is delivering great outcomes for the Australian economy.
And the telecom sector is fundamental to delivering on the Government’s productivity agenda – and this can be achieved with reforms that enable the sector to deliver to its full capability.
Thank you.
[1] BCARR, March 2023, Telecommunications Services and productivity
[2] BCARR, Productivity impacts from improved broadband: Firm-level analysis, March 2023
[3] The economic and social impact of investment in the nbn network, Accenture, January 2024
[4] Address at the National Tech Summit, 16 September 2025
[5] Harnessing data and digital technology Interim report, Productivity Commission
[6] Making the most of the AI opportunity Research paper 1: AI uptake, productivity, and the role of government, Productivity Commission
