Telcos will be forced to share real-time network information during outages and set up a body to take charge of Australia's triple-0 system, in the wake of last year's Optus outage.

The report found a key cause of the outage was a problem with Optus’s 3G network.

During the outage, Optus’s 4G and 5G towers shut down, meaning emergency calls were diverted to other network’s towers — known as camping on.

But the network’s 3G base towers did not shut down, so those calls got lost along the way.

“Some devices … attempted to make emergency calls via those [3G] towers (rather than look to camp on to another network), even though no mobile service was being supplied by the Optus network,” the report said.

…

The recommendations include:

  • Obligate telcos to shut down their towers during outages, allowing triple-0 calls to be carried by other networks
  • Establish a “Triple Zero custodian” whose sole responsible is to make sure the system is working
  • Force telcos to share real-time information about outages with emergency services organisations and authorities
  • Force telcos to file a timely post-mortem on major outages to the regulator and the government — including what caused it and steps being taken to resolve it, with a clear and detailed timeline
  • Review the government’s contract with Telstra to run the triple-0 system, with any changes to be made within a year
  • Introduce an industry-wide approach to responding to consumers affected by large-scale outages
  • Establish an agreement between telcos requiring them to help each to manage and resolve outages
  • Review all legislation and regulation relating to triple-0
  • Nath@aussie.zone
    0·
    8 months ago

    This is all super fascinating from a macro view. Originally telephony services (landlines) were provided by a government utility. That utility was privatised in the late-20th century with certain guarantees that they will continue to provide a certain standard of telephony services.

    Along come all these mobile carriers, who are providing a private service without the same level of assurance they will meet those requirements. You probably don’t notice, but when you sign up to a mobile or VoIP telephony service, you’ll routinely agree to waive those guarantees (do a quick google of “csg waiver”). In short: Most non-Telstra carriers won’t/don’t actually guarantee you can reach 000, or meet the government CSG. Only that they’ll try their best.

    It looks like the government is considering stepping in and putting an end to that practice. It’ll be a huge shake up to the telco industry.

    • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      Originally telephony services (landlines) were provided by a government utility.

      …

      Along come all these mobile carriers, who are providing a private service without the same level of assurance they will meet those requirements.

      There is literally no example of a Government service that has been improved with privatisation. Why do “we” (the voting public) keep falling for this shit?

      • Nath@aussie.zone
        0·
        8 months ago

        Well, for a start - Telstra still honours the CSG. You could argue that Telstra today is better than Telecom of the 90’s. But, it’s impossible to say how much Telecom would have evolved and improved with the same technology advancements that have come along. I seriously doubt that Telecom would have jumped into the Internet space as quickly as Telstra did. Even Telstra was a bit late to the Internet Provider party.

        Why do “we” (the voting public) keep falling for this shit?

        It’s not so much the things that are privatised, it’s what that privatisation pays for. Recent WA privatisations are paying for Metronet - which is a massive uplift to the Perth’s public transport network, providing new lines, stations and trains. Hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from that.