The 2023 Optus outage, which impacted millions of Australians, posed a serious risk to public safety and impacted Australia in many ways.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has today been tasked with amending the regulations that require industry to deliver calls to emergency services.
There is also a requirement for carriers to ensure mobile phone calls are able to access Triple Zero on other mobile networks during outages, addressing the technical fault which resulted in many Optus customers being left unable to reach Triple Zero during the outage.
Providers will be required to share real time network information with participants in the Triple Zero ecosystem. This will both increase visibility of future outages and provide valuable information to front line emergency service organisations, particularly during natural disasters.
There are also new requirements for industry to report to Government after major outages, including a plan to reduce the risk of similar outages occurring in future.
In addition to implementing these recommendations resulting from the Optus outage review, there will also be new requirements for providers to identify mobile phones unable to access Triple Zero and notify customers. This will ensure consumers are aware of this risk before it is too late.
