Vodafone has come out swinging against Telstra, alleging that Australia's biggest telco has been misleading consumers over the size of its mobile network for over 15 years.
Vodafone says that Telstra's network size claims are based on the use of an external antenna, and that customers who don't have this extra equipment access a much smaller footprint. The telco claims Telstra may have been overstating the geographic reach of its mobile network by as much as 40%.
Telstra has claimed that its mobile network covers three million square kilometres, but Vodafone says the coverage received by most Telstra customers is "nearly one million square kilometres less".
Similarly, Vodafone takes issue with Telstra's claim of 99.7% population coverage, as it "ignores the fact that very few Australians" have external antennas or repeaters. External antennas are also factored into the Telstra wholesale network's 98.8% population coverage figure.
By contrast, Vodafone says it measures its network coverage based on the outdoor coverage a customer would receive using a mobile phone outside, without extra equipment.
TPG Telecom (Vodafone's parent company) Group Executive for Consumer, Data, and Analytics, Kieren Cooney says that "Telstra has tricked Australians into paying top dollar for coverage they simply can't get on a regular mobile phone".
"We are shocked that Telstra appears to have been overstating its coverage by so much for so long and we are calling on them to make it right," said Cooney in a media release.
“By overstating the coverage available to most Australians by such an enormous amount, Telstra and its resellers have no doubt retained customers or attracted customers that might otherwise have chosen Vodafone or other TPG Telecom brands such as TPG, Felix, Lebara and Kogan.”
TPG has referred Telstra to the ACCC and is considering legal action.
Telstra has updated its website to clarify the 99.7% figure factors in the use of external antennas, but denies it has misled Australians.
"No matter how you look at it, Telstra’s mobile network covers more of Australia than any other," said a Telstra spokesperson in a statement given to WhistleOut. "Any suggestion that we've misled the public about the size of our network is completely untrue."
"Using our coverage maps, customers have always been able to determine our level of coverage with and without an external antenna, so they always knew what to expect based on the device they’re using."
"Many customers in regional and remote areas benefit from using external antennas to maximise their coverage. This is why we have used this as the basis for our coverage footprint."
The spokesperson said Telstra updated its coverage claims to reference external antennas to help the "public understand the difference" now that Vodafone has communicated how it chooses to calculate coverage.
Telstra's spokesperson also confirmed to WhistleOut its 5G coverage claim of 91% of the population also takes the use of external antennas into account.
Telstra charges $82 per month on a two-year term for a stationary repeater, excluding installation. Adding an antenna to this takes this to $107 per month. Mobile repeaters for use in cars start at $984 outright.
Consumer advocacy group ACCAN said it was deeply concerned about the allegations made by Vodafone, with CEO Carol Bennett saying customers presume "telcos are honest" with the information they provide.
"Consumers deserve accurate information about when and where they will receive coverage, the reliability of that service and the cost," said Bennett in a media release. "When consumers are misled, markets are distorted, and trust is eroded."
"Many Australians, particularly in regional and remote areas, sign up for expensive plans with Telstra because they believe it’s the only option for reliable coverage. If this allegation is true – and the coverage advantage is not as big as people have been led to believe – regional consumers would be forgiven for feeling betrayed."
In Australia, telcos self-report coverage. The Federal Government is currently running a National Audit of Mobile Coverage, testing 180,000 square kilometres of regional and rural roads per year, for three years, which will be used to create an independent resource for checking mobile coverage.
The sheer size of Australia makes creating independent coverage maps a challenging prospect, but there have been other attempts at doing so. Opensignal - an analytics company specialising in telco - uses crowdsourced data from its app to create independent coverage maps around the world, including in Australia.
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Alex Choros
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