TELECOMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY SURVEY€¦ · TECHNOLOGY SURVEY SEPTEMBER 2017. CONDUCTED FROM 30...

TELECOMMUNICATIONS &

TECHNOLOGY SURVEY

SEPTEMBER 2017

CONDUCTED FROM 30 AUG TO 13 SEPT 2017 SURVEY DISTRIBUTED BY EMAIL AND ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

624 TOTAL RESPONSES

KEY MESSAGES• Mobile service remains extremely poor in rural Australia with 71% not satisfied with the

service.

• In WA only 17% rated the mobile service as satisfactory, compared to 43% in Victoria/Tasmania. • Lack of coverage was the biggest concern in each state. • Nearly 10% (& 17% in Qld) reported none of their farm had constant and reliable mobile phone service, while only 7% (&

only 1.8% in WA) said 100% of the farm had mobile service. • Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents said a quarter or less of their farm had reliable mobile coverage.

• 46% of respondents were connected to the nbn (50% in NSW and 40% in SA).

• 70% used Skymuster satellite and 28% used a fixed wireless connection. • 44% rated their satisfaction with nbn as good (36%) or excellent (8%), nearly a third (31%) rated it as average, and 25%

rated it as dissatisfied (20%)/totally dissatisfied (5%). • Quality of connection and then speed were the two largest areas of concern.• Of those not connected, 74% stated the reason was because nbn is not available in their area.

• Farmers use or want to use a wide range of digital decision support and technology tools in

their business

• 52% would use these to manage farm inventories (chemicals, fertiliser, fuel, livestock, grain) and 43% for online sales and marketing.

• Technologies currently used on farm include GPS Auto Steer (79%), harvest yield maps (46%) & satellite imagery (35%)• Main limitations for adopting new technology were cost (55%), internet connectivity (52%) and accessibility (36%).

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Q1: Which state do you live in?

Answered: 623 Skipped: 1

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Q3: What is your current role in the agriculture

industry?Answered: 617 Skipped: 7

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Q4: How many people live and work at this location?Answered: 601 Skipped: 23

# people NSW Qld Vic+Tas SA WA

1 6.6 8.9 12.3 2.7 8

2 33.5 32.1 36.89 36 18

3 20 5.4 16.4 19 22

4 18 16 5.7 14 26

5 5.08 5.4 4.1 11 8

6 6.09 10.7 1.64 4.5 10

7 2.5 0 1.64 6.31 3

7.14% in Qld had 15

Most frequent responses by State

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Q5: Are you connected to the nbn?Answered: 620 Skipped: 4

NSW Qld Vic+ Tas

SA WA

Yes 50.24 45.61 43.06 40.35 45.69

No 49.76 54.39 53.97 59.65 54.31

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Q6: Why are you not connected to the

nbn?Answered: 320 Skipped: 304 NSW Qld Vic+

TasSA WA

71.13 63.33 77.94 74.63 79

8.25 6.67 7.35 5.97 7

20.62 30 14.71 19.4 14

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Q7: What type of nbn connection do you

have?Answered: 275 Skipped: 349

NSW Qld Vic+ Tas

SA WA

21.43 28 44.64 50 6

3.06 0 1.79 4.55 2

75.51 76 53.57 47.73 94

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Q8: Rank your level of satisfaction with

your nbn serviceAnswered: 277 Skipped: 347 NSW Qld Vic+

TasSA WA

5.05 12 10.71 9.09 7.8

25.25 36 42.86 43.18 43

36.36 40 28.57 36.36 16

24.24 8 16.07 11.36 25

9.09 4 1.79 0 7.8

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Q9: The nbn Sky Muster service has an additional data option for students being home schooled. Would you

access this option if it was extended to include rural school students living at home and studying at local

schools; boarding school students; tertiary students studying both on or off campus.


NSW Qld Vic+ Tas

SA WA

30.3 40 25 36.36 30

9.09 16 21.43 15.91 6

60.61 44 53.57 47.73 64

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Q10: When thinking about your nbn connection please rank in order of importance,

each of the following (1 = biggest issue 5 = least important) Note: you cannot use

the same number twice


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Q11: Are you satisfied with your mobile

phone service?Answered: 583 Skipped: 41

NSW Qld Vic+ Tas

SA WA

25.91 24.53 43.33 32.69 17.12

74.09 75.47 56.67 67.31 83

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Q12: Thinking of your mobile, please rank the following statements according to the

degree of concern they cause you. (1 = biggest issue 4 = least important)


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Q13. Provide details of any other concerns you have about your

mobile.24% of respondents provided a comment. Most comments were about 1) dropouts/poor coverage, 2) safety and

emergency concerns, 3) deteriorating service and 4) lack of competition.

Dropouts and poor coverage

• Battery goes flat faster looking for a service

• It spends all day searching for service and flattens the battery quickly

• Unreliable connection even with good signal.

• Service dropping in and out when standing in the same spot

• Inside my house phone reception is very poor

• Black spots all over the farm

• The most unreliable service is in the home

although we are 1 km from the tower

• Almost impossible to pick up in the house or yard, we have

to go inside and use the landline

• We don't get mobile coverage and we are 20kms from town

• My farm has quite good coverage and mobile reliability - except in

the place I most need it, which is in the office and certain parts of

the house. The office is where I need exceptional coverage.

• Can lose service for a week at a time ,not good enough

• Mobile works fine out in paddocks but doesn't work around sheds and vey

unreliable in the home.

• No network reliability, cannot use it for ag data in the field

• A new tower goes in less than 13 km away and you wouldn't know it -

looks like they are only running it at quarter strength as you have to

be within a few kilometres of it to get full signal

• We are not remote, yet a huge blackspot where we live

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Coverage has deteriorated

• Coverage worse than with CDMA

• Recent decrease in coverage

• Much slower data upload speed compared to 12

months ago. Poorer reception than 12 months ago.

• I had much better coverage 5 years ago

• Service getting worse [3 bar signal ok -- very low capacity/download

speed getting worse]

• New closer tower installed approx 15-20km from us & signal has

now become more unreliable. Paid $1000 to Telstra for smart

antenna boxes & still consistent dropouts. Was planning to

disconnect landline but am not able to due to mobile unreliability.

• Coverage has got even worse lately.

• Used to be good but signal is getting weaker over last 2 years.

• Coverage on our property has reduced from about 20% 5 years

ago to less than 10% now

• Please tell me why an iPhone 4s had reasonable coverage but 6 &

7 iPhones are not as good ?

• It works well enough, but a recent tower "upgrade" took away our

good coverage.


mobile…

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Safety and emergency

• Unable to rely on SMS. Cannot assume connection to emergency

service.

• With the poor service comes danger - e.g. Summer of 2014 we had a

text go out to say evacuate but only got it many hours later - it was

decided we leave after we saw Elvis the helicopter.

• Concerned that mobile towers have insufficient backup power

supply if supply from the grid fails• No mobile service available for approximately 10 km. Concerns in

case of an emergency

• Lack of coverage is a major safety concern. Not good enough

• Lack of competition in rural and remote areas

• Work health and safety

• Coverage during emergency ie. FIRES.

• In a case of a medical emergency last year, we had to come home

and use the landline....Thank goodness we still have 2 landlines

which cost a lot, but still cheaper than the cost of a life!! Telstra

mobile service here is as useful as flywire on a submarine. We're

120km via road to the Perth CBD, so we're not even remote or

regional; just an eastern suburb of Perth.

• If they remove landlines then our only communication in an

emergency is the mobile and as this is totally unreliable,

especially at busy times of the year ie harvest, this is totally

unacceptable


mobile...

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Q14: Thinking about your mobile coverage, what percentage of

your farm has constant and reliable mobile phone service?Answered: 586 Skipped: 38

NSW Qld Vic+ Tas SA WA

14.87 16.98 4.96 6.6 6.4

26.67 30.19 12.4 20.75 33

14.87 15.09 14.88 16.04 24

16.92 13.21 31.40 25.47 25

18.46 18.87 25.62 25.47 10

8.21 5.66 10.74 5.66 1.8

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This graph provides a general comparison of results from the last five surveys.

*Please note in 2017 the response options were changed to capture more detailed coverage information (see previous slide) and so the 2017 “marginal” result above is comprised of 17% with 25-50% coverage and 23% with 50-75% coverage.

0% Poor (20%) Marginal (50%) Satisfactory (80%) 100%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Thinking about your mobile coverage, what percentage of your farm has constant and

reliable mobile phone service?

2017*

2015

2014

2013

2012

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Q15: When thinking about the most effective digital decision support and

technology tool (as in the best farm App) for your farm business, what would it

ideally do for you? (select your top 3 features)


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Q16: Which of the following technologies do you access on a

regular basis using your mobile device? Tick all that apply


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0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%Which of the following technologies do you access on a

regular basis using your mobile device? Tick all that apply

2017

2015

2014

2013

This graph provides a comparison of results from recent surveys.

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Q17: Which of the following technologies do you use on

your farm?Answered: 542 Skipped: 82

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35%

46%

11%

4% 5%

17%21%

7%3%

79%

28%

12%4%

15%

45%

10%

21%

33%25%

17%7%

2%

82%

18%13%

1%0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Which of the following technologies do you use on your farm?

2017

2015


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Q18: What are the main limitations for adopting new technology on

your farm?Answered: 541 Skipped: 83

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36%

25%30% 29%

14% 13%

30%

52%

18%

32%

55%

14%

6%

27%24%

19%21%

14%

12%

24%

39%

14%

39%

6%10%

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

What are the main limitations for adopting new technology on your farm?

2017

2015


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Q19. Please provide any further comments or queries…

We are not remote, yet a huge blackspot where we live

• Better connectivity and high speed data will enable us to better control our inputs and decision making, as well as access and utilise

our own data for long term profitability and sustainability.

• System capacity is barely just keeping up with demand, and demand is going to keep growing

• We pay a large amount of money for internet service which is fluctuating most of the time. We have had to install an external

aerial on the roof of our home along with the purchase of Cel-Fi boxes on the interior at our cost to improve our signal.

• Better access required for health and safety due to isolation and working alone. Ideal location available at current Microwave

tower site. Would fill in one of the major black spots along the Eyre Highway.

• Coverage is by far the number one issue. no point having all this technology that relies on coverage over the farm when majority of

farm has no coverage

• Concerned about data lock in and lack of coordination between our systems

• Internet & mobile service unreliable & intermittent ,frustrated paying for expensive services that are unreliable.

• Very Time consuming & frustrating trying to learn to use technologies & service drops out. Tend not to try to learn about technologies

as too unreliable & time consuming.

• Also technologies changing rabidly,& hard to keep up with especially when you try to learn to use a technology while continuously

losing signal or is so slow meanwhile jobs still need doing in the paddock...

• Not happy paying for service that is unreliable & slow.

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• Internet capacity [not signal strength] getting lower here -- eg; not enough capacity to do online banking for days at a time

• How can we ever keep up with the technology when we don't even have mobile coverage on the farm. We can only access the

internet in the home office by way of satellite. As we only live 20kms from town it really is pathetic. Businesses want to call you on a

mobile and they can't do that with us - we can only use a landline. Standing on top of a roof or climbing up a tree isn't the way to do

business!!

• Access to big data away from house is key for adoption for all that new tech out there. It is too cumbersome/clunky/time

consuming without it. We are under utilising because if it.

• 9.5gb per month so very limited access to internet and have to stand on silo to get mobile reception

• If Australia wants to remain competitive against the rest of the world in the agricultural sector, it really needs to get its act together

and get the mobile phone coverage working. Agricultural technology is increasingly being developed to rely on this technology and

it is frustrating that we can't utilize it because we don't have the service to do so.

• Cloud base products would be ideal for entering information on the run with mobile/tables, however you need mobile

coverage. I'm aware that some store data/information then upload when you eventually get some service.

• Give me a constant reliable mobile service. I'm disadvantaged in my grain marketing due to no service.

• There are great programs coming out from machinery companies, but we are unable to utilise them due to lack of connectivity.

While skymuster is an improvement the latency issue means we cannot use many cloud based applications.

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• We had a tower placed in our local town under black spot program, we live and farm on the other side of a rise, tower is 10-15m to

short to provide us with a consistent mobile phone service and we are only 10 km away in what is a relative flat southern mallee

• The mobile system is overloaded in the regional areas , nearly coming to a standstill in the evening , our mobile wi- fi is taking 50

seconds to load each page on this survey . It's the silent minority being looked after ?????? No swinging seats in our neck of the

woods .

• Need better and cheaper mobile phone and internet connectivity. Makes farm dangerous from an OH&S perspective and makes

business very difficult with current unreliable and expensive internet.

• Data ownership ,use etc - need a good legal framework for Primary Producers to preserve value and legally protect!

• NBN SkyMuster - need more data allowance at an affordable price

• Nbn dropouts are unacceptable for the price being charged both to the consumer and also the cost being borne by the taxpayer.

Unless the situation is remedied quickly, I will drop my nbn and go back to 3G.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY SURVEY€¦ · TECHNOLOGY SURVEY SEPTEMBER 2017. CONDUCTED FROM 30...

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