The Federal Government has commenced a new National Audit of Mobile Coverage to investigate and repair black spots across Australia, as well as identify any locations that require future investment and provide a resource for real mobile coverage experiences especially in regional and rural areas.

Launched as part of the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia, the audit is set to be undertaken by Accenture until 30 June 2027, commencing with an initial pilot that covers three roads and three locations in each state and territory for three months.

After the pilot, the main audit will begin by drive testing approximately 180,000 kilometres of roads in regional and rural areas every year for three years, with Accenture to place devices in 77 locations across all states and territories to test any “seasonal variations” in mobile coverage during the three years.

“Access to reliable mobile coverage is critical in 2024,” Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, said.

“A national audit of mobile coverage is critical to identifying Australia’s coverage gaps, and highlighting where industry maps might not reflect the experience of Australians on the ground.

“This audit will allow the Government and industry to make better investment decisions that will actually make a difference for locals, motorists and small businesses in areas of patchy coverage.“

The audit will also measure coverage and performance from three telecommunications providers, Optus, Telstra and TPG across the 3G (while it remains), 4G and 5G networks.

The audit will analyse the data from both the physical testing and crowd-sourced data gathered by Accenture and streamlined into the Mobile Audit Visualisation Tool, showing coverage maps to capture real-word user experiences of the mobile network. The current maps are based on data from December 2023 to February 2024, analysing 150,000 active users in Australia and 3.5 billion samples annually.

The data from the drive-testing and Accenture devices left in certain locations will be released as it becomes available.