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Fear was struck into the hearts of Brodie and Jess Harvey when their two-week-old baby boy Jace broke out in a rash.
The nearest hospital was more than an hour's drive from their property in rural central Queensland.
They tried to call a medical professional but couldn't get mobile reception despite a phone tower only 10 kilometres from their house.
New data shows more than 50,000 complaints have been made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) from people living in regional, rural and remote Australia about poor phone and internet coverage.
Brodie and Jess Harvey welcomed their little boy Jace last month. (Supplied: Brodie Harvey)
The Harveys were able to use an old landline connection to get help after multiple attempts.
In the end their son needed to be rushed to hospital.
"He was completely covered in dots up to his ears," Mr Harvey said.
Baby Jace has since recovered from last month's scare, but Mr Harvey said it was a confronting experience.
"The longer it went on the longer we couldn't get in touch with anyone … it wasn't nice."
Connection getting worse
Their family lives near the township of Willows Gemfields in central Queensland, more than 350 kilometres south-west of Rockhampton.
Mr Harvey said he never thought he would be so disconnected in an area that was meant to have good mobile coverage.
Brodie and Jess Harvey are frustrated by the lack of mobile connectivity at their home. (Supplied: Brodi Harvey)
He said there was no more 3G in the area and the 4G and 5G service was unreliable and would often drop out for hours.
He said his family had started using ultra high frequency (UHF) radios to communicate.
"Between my parents' house and my own house, it's probably 200 metres and we can't ring each other," he said.
"If something happens you might as well not even have your mobile phone on you."
Mr Harvey made a complaint to his service provider Telstra after the stress of having no reception when his son was sick.
He said the response he received from Telstra was that they wouldn't accept the complaint because his mobile phone was connected to his family's business plan.
The Harveys live on a property near the Willows Gemfields in central Queensland. (ABC: Back Roads)
Service improvements underway
Telstra regional general manager Rachel Cliffe said the company was working to improve and expand coverage across regional Australia, including around Willows Gemfields.
"Telstra invests more than any other telco in regional and rural Australia and our mobile network now covers 99.7 per cent of the population," Ms Cliffe said.
"We have invested $42 billion in our network over the last 10 years."
She said Telstra activated a new 4G small cell at Lochington a few weeks ago, which had improved mobile coverage south of Willows Gemfields.
Ms Cliffe said there were plans to build a new mobile base station nearby to improve coverage and capacity along the Capricorn Highway.
She also said if customers wanted to improve their mobile coverage, they could use their National Broadband Network connection to access wi-fi calling or install extra equipment to increase coverage.
"In some cases, mobile coverage in their home or vehicle can be increased by fitting an external aerial or phone booster," she said.
Optus was also contacted for comment.
City-country divide
Data released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman confirmed people living in regional, rural and remote Australia were worse off than residents in metro areas.
The ombudsman received 51,854 phone and internet complaints from consumers between 2021 and 2024.
The complaints were about faults, poor service quality, poor mobile service coverage, outages and accessibility.
Cynthia Gebert says clear standards need to be set for mobile coverage. (Supplied: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman)
Telecommunications Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said it was unacceptable to have so many people without reliable mobile and internet connectivity.
"We need to make sure that there are clear benchmarks, clear standards that the telco industry needs to meet," she said.
"So that there isn't a different experience depending on where you live."
Negative impact on business
Livestock agent Bill Seeney, who relies on mobile reception for his business, said he had noticed connectivity had become worse in recent years.
Based in Longreach in western Queensland, Mr Seeney said he travelled hundreds of kilometres every week.
He said mobile black spots had become more common between regional towns.
"It's very frustrating because telecommunications is one of the major parts of our business," Mr Seeney said.
He said he had been forced to drive 40 to 50 kilometres to get reception.
"You'll be halfway through a phone call and you just cut out," Mr Seeney said.
Mr Seeney says connectivity issues impact his business. (ABC Western Queensland: Craig Fitzsimmons)
"We're nearly back to the sat[ellite] phone days and it's definitely getting worse."
Ms Gebert said a telco accessibility taskforce was being established to help people raise their concerns and resolve them quicker.
She said it would be comprised of providers as well as consumer organisations.
"We don't want to be reinforcing any digital divide," she said.
"It's not reflective at all of how essential phone and internet have become to our way of life."
She said the data would be submitted to the federal government to highlight the issues faced in areas outside of metro Australia.