The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says Australia’s mobile blackspots will not be filled by open roaming.

The ACCC has been investigating the issue after receiving an increasing number of complaints from rural residents who can barely get coverage outside regional centres.

Regional residents say they are forced to run up hills or drive kilometres down the road just to send a message or make a phone call.

Given that Telstra holds up to 84 per cent of some regional markets, there was a push for it to be forced to open its network to other providers, so that Vodaphone and Optus customers could be better served.

The ACCC has ruled that forcing Telstra to allow other phone users to roam onto its network would only create more problems, and be a disincentive for investment in the infrastructure that will genuinely help.

“We felt that declaring roaming would not improve coverage but risk coverage in regional areas, and secondly we felt it could risk mobile coverage,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

“Telstra's monopoly is one they have built and there is a big difference in that,” Mr Sims said.

“Optus is challenging that through investments in new technology.

“It's now using satellites and small cell technology to put Optus mobile roaming capability into roadhouses in remote areas.

“That was one investment we were worried would not happen [by allowing roaming].”

The ACCC said open roaming would have added the access price onto regional consumers’ phone bills.

Mr Sims said the ACCC will find ways to make mobile coverage more transparent and accountable.

The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) welcomed the decision.

“We're very pleased. The ACCC has actually listened to what consumers were worried about in relation to declaring roaming,” chief executive Teresa Corbin said.

“[Roaming] may just put the price up, decrease the quality and decrease investment in building coverage, because increasing competition would be at the expense of giving consumers access to a network, a good network.

“It's a big country and we need to maximise the investment the Government is putting in, but also the competitive levers that can encourage more investment.”

Vodafone says it will continue fighting to access the Telstra network, which it believes has been given an unfair advantage by way of $2 billion in taxpayer subsidies.