SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS TO NETWORK RESILIENCE AND EMERGENCY CONNECTIVITY ONE YEAR ON FROM MAJOR OUTAGE

Friday, 8 November 2024: Communications Alliance, the peak body of the telecommunications industry, announced that significant progress has been made in improving network resilience and emergency connectivity one year on from a major outage.

“Secure and resilient critical infrastructure is central to Comms Alliance’s work, and our sector has banded together to make significant improvements to the resilience of telecoms networks and connectivity during emergencies one year on from a major outage,” said CEO Luke Coleman.

Comms Alliance and telcos have actively responded to the recommendations of the post-incident review report led by former Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Deputy Chair Richard Bean (‘Bean Review’).

Recommendations 3 and 4 of the Bean Review called for regular testing of the Triple Zero ecosystem, including networks, devices, and interoperability across the ecosystem.

“Comms Alliance has led a working committee from across the industry to develop a new industry code and technical guideline for device testing, to ensure that handsets are capable of making calls to Triple Zero both on their usual network and also when ‘camping on’ to a different network if their usual network is hit by an outage,” Mr Coleman said.

Following the development of testing arrangements by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Tech Lab, Comms Alliance will finalise and submit the code to the regulator in early 2025. Comms Alliance is also establishing a new industry working group charged with operationalising the testing system on an ongoing basis.

To further improve the technical capabilities of networks during emergencies, Comms Alliance is leading industry collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other Departments on the National Messaging System (NMS). The NMS will allow emergency services to send targeted warning messages to mobile phones using Emergency Cell Broadcast technology, enabling agencies to securely provide information about emergencies like natural disasters or security threats in a given location directly to mobiles.

A third initiative led by Comms Alliance is updating the Australian Standard for mobile devices to ensure they meet new technical requirements for emergency calls (AS/CA S042). As one of just five accredited Standards Development Organisations in Australia, Comms Alliance leads a working committee to update the Standard so mobile device companies can test and certify customer equipment for the Australian market. Adherence to this Standard is also enforced by the regulator, ACMA.

Comms Alliance is also leading the industry’s response to recommendation 16 of the Bean Review, which places new requirements on telcos for remote access to network management tools in the event of an outage. Comms Alliance will bring this recommendation to life via updates to the Emergency Call Service Requirements Industry Code (C536:2020), as well as developing a new technical guideline for telcos on network management for emergency calls, anticipated to be complete early in 2025. Like all of the organisation’s codes, the Emergency Call Service Requirements Industry Code is registered with, and enforced by, the ACMA.