Budde said he was in favour of charging a lower price for radio spectrum and imposing obligations on buyers to better serve rural communities, perhaps by creating the telecommunications’ equivalent of an “open commons”.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said he would be happy to see the digital dividend spectrum sold at a discount if that ensured the rollout of 4G in rural areas was on a par with that in cities and towns. However, an industry source queried whether attaching conditions to the spectrum sale would be the most efficient way of supporting such a policy.

Time for Government to stop exploiting our shared spectrum resource as a form of indirect taxation which leads to poor competitive outcomes and fat margins to the winners who take all.