For generations, your local postie has delivered goods from far flung places, as well as news from distant friends.
However, soon they may also help deliver better mobile phone reception as part of a national audit of reception black spots.
Mobile signal-tracking devices will be installed on Australia Post vehicles to help measure how strong or weak reception is as they make deliveries across the country.
"This will provide a clear and accurate evidence base to target mobile black spots," Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said.
"Consumers know that the predictive coverage maps which are issued by the carriers, are not always accurate on the ground."
The lack of reliable mobile and internet coverage has been an issue for those living in regional and remote Australia for years.
Areas with little or no reception — or not enough capacity to handle surges in demand — are known colloquially as black spots.
The federal government's Mobile Black Spot Program was started in 2015 and aimed to improve mobile coverage and competition across Australia.
There have been multiple rounds of funding and, so far, that has seen a further 1,047 base stations activated, as at October 25, 2022.
Increasing reliance on reliable coverage
The bane of a black spot is all-too-real for farmers such as James Walsh, who runs a property and an agriculture tech business near Epping Forest in northern Tasmania.
"It becomes frustrating," he said. "We can drive around on the farm and we might have one bar. That might be enough for the phone to ring or go to message bank but often it drops out during calls."
Tasmania's topography makes it much more challenging to provide coverage across long distances compared to the rolling flats of country Victoria.
Mr Walsh said reliable internet coverage was also becoming "critical" for farmers, who rely on remote monitoring and control devices to run irrigators, survey their properties, make management decisions and muster help if needed.
"The better coverage and the more redundancy put into the system — as more and more people become reliant on it — the better the system is," Mr Walsh said.
How will the posties help?
Many details are still being worked out, such as how much data is needed, which areas specifically of the country will be targeted and how long it'll take.
The project is estimated to cost $20 million and the funding has been committed as part of the 2022-23 federal budget.
Data collected is to include information about mobile coverage, capacity issues and gaps in service.
This audit will also look at the locations of previously built phone towers and assess if they're in the correct location.
"The results will help industry and government make more-impactful investment decisions, and ensure coverage maps being published by mobile carriers are accurate and up to date," Ms Rowland said.
"The importance of mobile connectivity has never been more prevalent. This was particularly heightened during the pandemic but, for regional areas, it is important all the time."
Ms Rowland said a similar study was being conducted in the United States.
"But this one in Australia is quite unique, it's novel … we see this as an important way of getting value for money, leveraging off a national asset, that being the Australia Post fleet," she said.
Are posties up for the task?
Consumer action group Digital Tasmania is working through the details of the proposal, however, spokesperson John Allan wondered if Australia Post was up for the job, given rural areas with bad coverage often don't receive mail.
"If you live in Staverton, Australia Post doesn't go there. You have a post office box in Sheffield," Mr Allen said.
"And the areas that have the best penetration of Australia Post vehicles are the areas that already have the best coverage."
Mr Allan also expressed concern about previous programs that "picked winners", because they funded individual telcos not universal infrastructure.
He pointed to the east coast town of Bicheno, where funding was provided to fix a black spot experienced by Vodafone but not that of its rival, Optus.
"There wasn't a net improvement in coverage," he said. "The black spot was all about Vodafone not having coverage in Bicheno."
Mr Allan welcomed any initiative that tried to improve coverage data because, he said, there was often a disconnect between a carrier's coverage map and the signal on the ground.
"[Carriers] can tell with a reasonable degree of certainty … where they have coverage and where they don't. What they can't control for is things like trees and buildings.
"So you can go into the bowels of the Royal Hobart Hospital and can't make a phone call, but you're right in the middle of the city centre."
