Tamworth and other towns could lose mobile phone towers in Telstra-TPG regional sharing merger

The "quasi-merger" of Telstra and TPG in regional areas would leave customers worse off, critics claim, and the Nationals leader labelled the proposal "a cancer on the regions".

The deal would see TPG share Telstra's rural mobile phone tower network, in exchange for leasing its the low- and mid-band spectrums to Telstra, which the telco says would improve coverage and capacity on increasingly congested regional networks.

If approved, TPG would close 725 of its regional telecommunications towers in major centres including Tamworth, Gladstone, Shepparton, and Whyalla. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is currently reviewing the regional network sharing proposal.

Critics say the deal would leave regional Australia with just one 5G network and no back-up networks in times of emergency, along with inferior quality services compared with those in metro areas, higher prices and less investment by competitors.

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Nationals leader David Littleproud said if approved, the deal would be a "market failure", setting a dangerous precedent by creating too much market concentration and regional customers would be the ones to lose.

"This stuff gets my blood pressure up," Mr Littleproud said.

"These companies aren't doing this out of the goodness of their heart. This is about them saving money, doing the bare minimum and getting away with it. We need to actually look at this cancer.

"This business model is all about reducing costs in the bush by sharing and removing the infrastructure that's there."

Both Telstra and TPG are adamant the deal was a win-win for the regions - TPG would offer a 4G network to 98.8pc of the population, while rural Telstra customers would get faster speeds in more locations due to the additional spectrums.

However the chair of Commpete, an industry group representing smaller telcos and mobile network operators, Michelle Lam said the proposal would see a dominant provider - which was one of the most profitable telcos in the developed world - with even greater control of the Australian market.

"Entrenching Telstra's dominance in regional Australia will hand it control to dictate price rises for mobile telecommunications in regional communities," Ms Lim said.

The closure of more than 700 towers would be "a permanent consolidation" in regional communities, she said, creating a higher concentration of market ownership and drastically reducing competition.

"If the ACCC permits it to go ahead, the government will be handing over essential services to a single private enterprise without regulatory guardrails in place to guarantee value, flexibility, and choice for the long-term interests of the Australian public," Ms Lim said.

"Telstra will be under no pressure to improve service quality in an industry already besieged by excessive customer complaints - more than 250,000 complaints last year to be precise."

The ACCC is due to make a verdict on the proposal by mid-October.

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