Government to force telcos to keep real-time public register of network outages

Telecommunications companies such as Optus and Telstra will be forced to keep a real-time public record of any outages affecting their networks, as the Albanian government moves to boost Australians’ confidence in the Triple Zero system.

Real-time recording is not yet designed, but it could work similar to how energy companies provide live information and maps about outages on their websites.

Communications Minister Anika Wells wrote in a formal order to the regulator on Monday that it should strengthen transparency measures and require telcos to keep a public record of network outages.

His order to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) comes after three people died when at least 600 Triple Zero calls failed in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory during the Optus outage in September.

Eleven days later, almost 5000 Optus customers in the Illawarra region of NSW were unable to contact emergency services for more than nine hours.

The real-time recordings are the government’s latest attempt to rebuild confidence in the emergency call system after the scandal shook Australians’ confidence and piled pressure on Wells, who describes himself as a “new minister” and is heading to New York for a trip to the United Nations amid the fallout from the Optus outages.

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This month, Wells introduced legislation that would give greater powers to the Triple Zero officer within ACMA; This was a review recommendation the government accepted 18 months ago.

Other new rules will also come into force on November 1. Telcos will be required to notify customers of local outages and provide information to ACMA and emergency services. Triple Zero services must be tested during network upgrades, and telcos must ensure that Triple Zero calls can return to other networks during outages.