Gov mobile audit to cover 60,000km of roads at minimum

The government’s forthcoming national mobile signal audit will cover a bare minimum of 75 towns and 60,000km of roads, with a “stretch target” of an additional 200,000km of roads.

A request for tender (RFT), released late Friday, details the $20 million project, which is intended to begin this year and potentially run for up to five years on government funding.

A major talking point for the project so far is its proposed use of Australia Post vehicles to carry signal measurement devices; however, this is only mandatory for a proof-of-concept phase, meaning it may not form part of the main audit.

Australia Post is said to have put forward a “rate card for the use of its assets, including vehicles and post offices as well as installation, maintenance and removal costs” - meaning it would be up to the audit company to agree to commercial terms.

It is also “free to also propose the use of other assets as well”.

The government indicated it’s also interested in other supplementary data sources, including crowdsourced data, and that it may either engage one or multiple organisations to supply this.

The documents more clearly define the scope of the national audit.

At a broad level, the government wants “all states and mainland territories” covered, but is also interested in “the external territories of Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and/or Norfolk Island”.

It has released a series of routes and towns that it wants covered as part of a proof-of-concept that needs to start this year:

• NSW: Routes are Sydney-Wagga-Hay-Mildura, Bourke - Coffs Harbour, and Broken Hill - Cobar - Dubbo. Towns are Coleambally, Bingara and Narromine 
• NT: Routes are Wadeye-Nhulunbuy, Darwin - Ghan and Tennant Creek - Mt Isa (Qld). Towns are Borroloola, Jabiru and Yulara 
• Qld: Routes are Brisbane-Longreach-Mt Isa, Rockhampton-Emerald-Mareeba-Cairns, and Rockhampton - Longreach. Towns are Bowen, Roma and Winton 
• SA: Routes are Mildura-Renmark-Port Augusta-Ceduna, Dhilba Guurunda (Innes National Park)-Yunta-Broken Hill, and Port Augusta-Coober Pedy. Towns are Kingston, Marree, and Pipalyatjara 
• Tas: Routes are Somerset-Queenstown-Hobart, George Town-Campbell Town-Hobart, St Helens-Derby (A3)-Devonport. Towns are Smithton, Strahan and Queenstown 
• Vic: Routes are Orbost-Mildura, Wodonga-Melbourne and Nhill-Stawell-Ballarat. Towns are Moe, Mallacoota and Lucas-Alfredton
• WA: Routes are Albany-Perth-Lancelin-Geraldton-Newman-Port Hedland (inland), Broome-Kununurra (Hwy 1), and Perth- Southern Cross-Eucla. Towns are Margaret River, Geraldton and Ravensthorpe 
• ACT: Routes are Yass-Civic-Queanbeyan, Goulburn-Majura Pk-Cooma and Civic-Cotter-Tidbinbilla-Tharwa-Civic. Towns/villages are Hall, Tharwa and Uriarra 

If the proof-of-concept goes well, the government said it would green-light the main audit.

At a minimum, the main mobile signal audit is intended to cover a “minimum set of roads” totalling about 60,000km, which is “based on public data sets of key freight routes, roads of strategic importance and the National Land Transport Network, and also includes some roads identified by state and territory government agencies as priorities for auditing.”

Beyond that, the government is also “encouraging” the auditing of coverage along another 200,000km of roads, which it said is “seen as a ‘stretch target’”, and of additional roads not covered by these two groups.

The audit is expected to cover the main cellular telcos, but could also include mobile virtual network operators (MNVOs).

It will measure the experience for SMS, voce calls and mobile data services, “including browsing the internet, downloading files and mobile device streaming standard definition video.”

While it could ultimately run for five years, it’s worth noting that the government’s expectation is for a series of point-in-time coverage audits, rather than for continuous monitoring of signal strength and coverage.

The government also notes it is interested in the extent to which the organisation that ultimately does the audits is able to make a viable business model out of data collection.

In that case, the government is hopeful that the organisation might be able to continue the work “beyond the life of the contract on a commercial basis without departmental funding”, and potentially continue to supply signal strength data to the government, either for free or for a fee.

It added: “There is no intention here to suggest that the Australian government is proposing further funding beyond that already allocated, but ongoing capacity deriving from … audit process is a legitimate interest.”