Strengthening Access to Triple Zero Emergency Hotline

A  triple zero emergency hotline will be reinforced after an Optus outage left Australians in a difficult situation.

In response to a federal inquiry into the severe outage, the Albanese government pledged to enhance the accountability of telecommunication giants and increase supervision of the emergency network.

New regulations will dictate how, what, and when telcos communicate with customers during and after a significant outage.

A testing program will be established to guarantee continuous accessibility of the  triple zero emergency hotline.

According to the review, carriers should conduct testing every six months to ensure ongoing access to the emergency network.

After a major outage, the industry will be required to submit a work plan to the regulator detailing how an affected company will prevent future outages.

Legislation and regulation concerning the triple zero service will undergo a review.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland stated that the government will adopt all 18 recommendations from the review.

“Australians must have faith in our telecommunications services, especially regarding triple zero,” she emphasized.

In November, Optus endured a 14-hour network outage, impacting over 10 million customers and numerous businesses with disrupted phone and internet services.

The Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, has revealed that the federal government has received a review of the severe outage. They will commence implementing changes over the next 12 to 18 months to enhance the accountability of telecommunication giants and strengthen oversight of the emergency network.

During this period, numerous triple zero calls were unable to connect.

Despite Optus claiming to have resolved the problem, the outage highlighted the necessity of improving the communication flow to customers and technical support for the emergency hotline, according to Ms. Rowland.

“This review provides us with a practical plan to enact changes that will enhance the resilience of telecommunications in our country,” she stated.

“Every aspect of the system must improve, and these recommendations will assist us in achieving that goal.”