The Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS), the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport, Catherine King, are urging motorists to keep their eyes on the road and not misuse mobile phones this Christmas/New Year.

Strong uptake of smartphones and mobile telecommunications data services are dominant trends in today’s release of new figures from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which show there are more than 29 million mobile services in operation in Australia.

The Wilkie Bill on mobile base station deployment is unwieldy and would result in long delays in rolling out infrastructure catering for rapidly increasing consumer demand for mobile broadband and result in reduced services for mobile phone users.

The mobile telecommunications industry is concerned that a highly prescriptive Greens Bill on mobile phone towers will make it harder to deploy vital national infrastructure to cater for huge consumer demand for services, such as mobile broadband, and result in reduced service levels for mobile phone users.

The latest INTERPHONE report has found no increased risk of acoustic neuroma – a rare, benign tumour of the ear nerve – from mobile phone use, says the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA).