Australia is now ranked 35th in the world for digital wellbeing

The study looked at 117 countries for five fundamental pillars of digital life - internet affordability and quality, e-infrastructure, e-security, and e-government.

The coronavirus pandemic exposed many of the shortfalls in regional broadband coverage, it found.

According to the latest research by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, despite an increase in remote learning, telehealth services and work from home arrangements during lockdowns, there are still about 900,000 Australian households who do not have an in-home internet connection.

RMIT Associate Professor Mark Gregory told ACM he was disappointed that Australia's telecommunications have once more been downgraded on the global stage.

"We've just been through a period of nine years where the federal government has utterly mismanaged telecommunications and the roll out of digital technologies in Australia," Mr. Gregory said.

"There's a need for government to realise that Australia is currently ranked as a third-world nation in telecommunications and digital services."

The National Broadband Network has cost taxpayers in excess of $57 billion, according to the Labor federal government.

Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) co-founder Kristy Sparrow established her business in 2014 after struggling with educating her children and running a business because of slow internet access at her property on a cattle station in central Queensland.

"We've come a huge way since then," Ms Sparrow told ACM. "There's a lot more choice now, and with choice comes confusion."

"What we know in regional areas is there is no independent advice, everybody is trying to sell you something they can profit from. It's their business so they want to sell you their product. but there's no one who can sit you down and sift through that information with you."

BIRRR is working to promote connectivity literacy among regional Australians and change the narrative that bush broadband is entirely bad.

In recent years, alternative internet providers including Skymesh and Starlink have become accessible to Australians unsatisfied with their locally provided internet access.

Starlink was created by American billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX. Starlink satellites are 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites.

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Mr Gregory believes Australia should not be outsourcing telecommunications to foreign organisations.

"Starlink has only been here for less than a year, it's expensive, and it's not Australian. The question is do we or should we abrogate our responsibility as a sovereign nation, to giving telecommunications, which is an essential service," he said.

"I put this to you in the same way I would ask, should we get rid of Medicare? Should we sell all of our hospitals to American providers?"

Australia currently has no regulated reliability framework for broadband networks or minimum performance standards. The United States introduced minimum performance standards for broadband in 2013.

"People have what we call digital apathy," Ms Sparrow said.

"That might be, three years ago their landline phone was out for three months and they tried and tried and tried to get it fixed, and they spent hours on hold with Telstra. so they think all providers are going to be like that. But there are actually some really good providers out there that have really good customer service and are trying really hard in this space."

The Regional Tech Hub provides independent and free advice about telecommunications services for regional and remote Australians.