# Could Domestic Roaming Improve Regional Mobile Coverage? The ACCC Is Investigating > The ACCC opened a 12-month inquiry on 5 August 2026 into whether regulated wholesale access, including domestic roaming, could improve regional coverage. It has not formed a view, and nothing changes for your plan yet. - Canonical URL: https://techxtelco.com/news/domestic-roaming-inquiry/ - Published: 2026-08-05 - Updated: 2026-09-10 - Topics: Telco, News - Author: David Everson - Image: https://anrkjmgqmwfosbvyzrzc.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/article-images/domestic-roaming-inquiry/hero-v1.webp - Publisher: Tech X Telco (https://techxtelco.com) The ACCC opened a mobile services inquiry on 5 August 2026 to examine regional mobile coverage and whether regulating wholesale access to some mobile services would improve outcomes for customers. It will run for about 12 months. The inquiry is examining whether to require wholesale network access; it has not given anyone a new right to connect to another provider’s network. **Quick answer** The regulator is considering whether to declare one or more wholesale mobile services, including domestic roaming and a radio access network service. Commissioner Anna Brakey said the ACCC had not formed a view on whether any service should be declared. Declaration would require a provider to give others access on regulated terms if it promotes the long-term interests of end users. Nothing changes for your plan today. Evaluate current coverage on its own merits, and do not buy a plan on the assumption that the inquiry will fill a particular gap. ## Two Ideas Under Examination ### What the ACCC Could Declare - Domestic roaming: Your provider’s customers use another provider’s network where their own has no coverage. The option most people mean by “roaming” inside Australia - Radio access network service: Providers share the towers and radio equipment while running their own customers and services. Infrastructure sharing rather than customer switching The ACCC is running the inquiry under Part 25 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. After a declaration inquiry it can declare a service if satisfied that doing so would promote the long-term interests of end users. Once declared, a provider must give access on request, and where commercial terms cannot be agreed the ACCC may set regulated price and other terms. The regulator said it also took into account the proposed Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation in 2027 and the upcoming 2 GHz spectrum allocation. Source: [ACCC: ACCC launches mobile services inquiry](https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-launches-mobile-services-inquiry), read 10 September 2026. ## Why This Matters Outside the Cities The inquiry will consider coverage, provider choice, network reliability, competition and investment, and the ACCC notes that satellite-based services and network-sharing arrangements are changing how mobile services are delivered. It said it would visit regional and remote Australia in the coming months to hear directly from communities. For readers, the practical question is whether a future arrangement would improve service in the places they actually use, and the existence of an inquiry does not answer that yet. Source: [ACCC: ACCC launches mobile services inquiry](https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-launches-mobile-services-inquiry), read 10 September 2026. ## What Changes for Your Plan Today? > The announcement does not give your phone a new entitlement to use every network. Ask a provider what applies to the plan you can buy now, and keep a record of the answer if a particular location matters to you. If you are reporting a coverage problem, write down what failed: a call that would not connect, a call that dropped or a page that would not load. Include the location, whether you were indoors or outdoors, the time and your handset. Those details are more useful than “bad reception”. Judge a plan on service available now, rather than a possible outcome of the inquiry. ## Make Coverage Problems Specific If you want to follow or contribute to the process, the ACCC’s inquiry page carries the current consultation information. Useful evidence identifies the location, the service, approximate times and the activity that fails, and separates what you experienced from what a coverage map predicted. ### What a Useful Coverage Note Contains - The location, as precisely as you can give it. A road, a property, a town centre. - The provider and the service you were using. Phone, data, which handset. - When it happened and how often. Times of day, repeatability. - What actually failed. Calls dropping, no data, no signal at all. - Whether the coverage map predicted service there. Experience and prediction are different evidence. Source: [ACCC: Mobile services inquiry 2026-27](https://www.accc.gov.au/inquiries-and-consultations/mobile-services-inquiry-2026-27), read 10 September 2026. ## Sources and How This Was Checked The inquiry’s scope, timing, legal basis and the Commissioner’s statements come from the ACCC’s media release dated 5 August 2026, read on 10 September 2026. The inquiry page was opened the same day for the consultation link. This is retrospective coverage of an inquiry, not a final decision or a network-performance test. Check the inquiry page for later developments. ### Official Pages Used - [ACCC: ACCC launches mobile services inquiry](https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-launches-mobile-services-inquiry): scope, options, legal basis and the regulator’s position. - [ACCC: Mobile services inquiry 2026-27](https://www.accc.gov.au/inquiries-and-consultations/mobile-services-inquiry-2026-27): consultation information and documents. Related on Tech X Telco: [New mobile coverage maps and outage registers: how to use them](https://techxtelco.com/news/mobile-coverage-outage-transparency/), on reading the maps the inquiry will be judged against.