Regional communities plagued by Telstra outages during emergencies

From the boundary fence of her dairy farm in western Victoria, Janet Rogerson can see a scorched treeline from bushfires on the horizon of a neighbouring property.

The charred trees are a reminder that the Carlisle River fires, although not currently a threat, are still burning in the Otways and could pose a danger to nearby communities if conditions take a turn for the worse.

But Rogerson’s worries about safety extend far beyond the flames.

During electricity outages, Rogerson routinely loses mobile coverage, as do many other residents in the small town of Simpson and its surrounds. It is a problem plaguing regional and rural communities across Victoria.

During the catastrophic fire danger day on January 9, Rogerson, who is a Telstra customer, said she lost mobile service. She was unable to make calls or access data to check the Vic Emergency app.

“My elderly dad was trying to ring me to find out what was happening with the fires,” she said. “He couldn’t get through to me.”

Rogerson said she lost Telstra network coverage a second time later in the month.

“They’re happy to take our premium payments but not so happy to help us out when we need them in an emergency, which is very disappointing,” she said.

Fellow Simpson resident and community centre co-ordinator Debra Smith became so fed up with the regular mobile network outages that she eventually took it to the top and emailed Telstra’s chief executive, Vicki Brady.

“And I still got nowhere,” Smith said.

Simpson is served by Telstra and Optus towers. During Telstra outages, customers can supposedly access coverage on the Optus tower. But that only allows SOS calls, not data.

When the Telstra network fails and customers are not within range of an Optus tower, Smith says they lose mobile connection altogether. It means they cannot call Triple Zero or notify authorities in the case of a car accident or other emergencies.

“It could be life-threatening,” Smith said.

Smith noticed the problem was getting worse in 2019 and has made numerous attempts to work with Telstra to rectify the issue.

“The bulk of people in this area are with Telstra because it does have superior coverage out here,” she said.

RMIT electronics and telecommunications engineering associate professor Mark Gregory agrees the regular mobile coverage failures are a serious and worsening problem.

“We’re seeing more events like fires, floods and heat, and we’ve got more outages occurring,” he said.

Gregory said other links in the telecommunications chain were also problematic, including telephone exchanges. He argued that regulations governing when telecommunications companies must keep customers and the public notified about major and significant local outages were too weak.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority defines a major outage as one that affects or is likely to affect 100,000 or more services or all carriage services using the network in a state or territory and is expected to last at least 60 minutes.

It defines a significant local outage as one that affects 250 or more services in remote Australia and is expected to last at least three hours. A significant local outage is also one affecting at least 1000 services in regional Australia and is expected to last six or more hours.

Gregory said telecommunications companies should have to report all outages so they were held accountable.

“All outages are important,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small – people can’t call Triple Zero.”

In the north Victorian town of Euroa, power outages resulting in mobile phone coverage losses are an ongoing problem. Euroa Chamber of Business and Commerce president Stephanie Swift said regular mobile outages were dangerous and disrupted the town’s ability to trade, particularly for retailers.

“It’s getting pretty dire here,” she said.

A Telstra spokesperson said the company understood the importance of telecommunications during the recent bushfires that had affected Simpson and Euroa.

“When fires like this occur, power outages and extreme heat are the main causes of network interruptions, with some infrastructure also being damaged due to the conditions,” the spokesperson said.

They said Telstra had back-up power systems at most sites and some key locations had fixed generators. The company said that in the recent fires, restoration efforts were hampered by blocked roads and safety exclusion zones that impeded access to damaged infrastructure.

The federal government has introduced legislation to establish the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation, which will require network operators to provide outdoor mobile voice and text coverage nationwide.

A federal government spokesperson said the obligation would be achieved partly through “satellite direct-to-device technology”. It is set to commence in December next year.

But Victorian Liberal MP Richard Riordan, whose Polwarth electorate covers south-west Victoria, said phone towers across high-risk fire zones must be upgraded to have battery and diesel generator back-up.

“Our community is now highly reliant on mobile and internet connection for safety, work and home use,” he said. “City communities would not tolerate prolonged outages, and nor do regional communities.”

He said communities in the Otways could have tens of thousands of visitors from cities and overseas travelling through high-danger flood and fire areas, and they relied on mobile communications for safety.

A spokeswoman for Powercor, which covers south-west Victoria, said the company’s crews worked quickly to restore electricity during extreme weather events, but critical infrastructure providers were encouraged to have their own power supply.

Janet Rogerson said many people in her community were still on edge with fires burning nearby and the prospect of more hot weather.

“Summer’s not over yet,” she said.

In the absence of reliable mobile coverage, Rogerson said only one thing would bring relief to many exhausted people in her community. That’s rain and plenty of it.

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