'Urgent warning to all Australians about Triple Zero calls - wait, don't hang up'

Analysis: The Optus network outage that occurred on September 18 this year led to a failure of hundreds of Triple Zero calls, and tragically two deaths where people had attempted to make Triple Zero calls.

Yesterday's independent report, released by Optus, is a complex analysis of the incident which will lead to changes in the handling of network upgrades, communications within Optus, but most alarmingly, shines a light on a serious issue with our modern mobile-reliant communications systems and the Triple Zero emergency line.

Leaving aside the analysis of the technical "why" surrounding the network outage, and understanding that there will be plenty of people at Optus looking at potentially packing their bags after failures to escalate the problem and properly communicate the issues, the real focus, I think, should be on educating Australians about the learnings we can all take from this issue.

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On the very first page of the over 40-page report produced by Dr Kerry Schott AO, there is a reference to mobile devices possibly taking "40 to 60 seconds to camp-on," which is the technical term for your mobile finding an alternate network to make a Triple Zero call in the event of an outage.

Calls to Optus' customer support on the day of the outage reported this exact problem; customers had tried to call Triple Zero but heard nothing but complete silence.

A key recommendation of the Schott report is to "Inform all customers that their devices may take 40-60 seconds to connect to Triple Zero" - that is a staggering thing to hear, as Dr Schott points out, "In an emergency, people are unlikely to hang on for this length of time, especially when the only response they are getting is silence on the line."

Critically, there is no single way in which mobile phones operate in the event of an outage to process a request to call Triple Zero.

Optus testing showed that Apple and Samsung phones used different pathways to establish a route through to another network and ultimately to Triple Zero.

Most concerning might also be the analysis which showed both Apple and Samsung devices attempted to connect to 3G to make that call, despite the fact that 3G has been switched off in Australia for over a year now.

Given this 40 to 60 second delay, it can be assumed that part of that timeframe is used to attempt 3G connections, and that should be written completely out of the code for devices used in Australia.

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Perhaps problematically, removing that code might then render the phones unable to contact emergency numbers in other countries when travelling, which is also an issue for travellers coming to Australia with phones still hard-coded to use 3G for emergency services.

The Schott report recommends that the industry and Government investigate ways to make the Triple Zero system be data-enabled, which would remove this reliance on now-old, outdated, and discontinued mobile network concepts.

Concerningly, the report also recommends that the public be encouraged to test their devices to ensure they work for a Triple Zero call.

It is vital that the public never call Triple Zero unless it is an emergency; in fact, it's an offence to do so.

What is needed though is a system by which people can have faith that their phone will work in the unique circumstances of a network failure, something you can't test by simply making a call.

Industry testing of devices must continue; a phone or SMS number should be set up for people to contact to validate their device, and the regulators and Government must act fast to bring our Triple Zero emergency call network up to a modern global standard.

While not noted in the Schott report, this could and should include factors such as calls via satellite, SMS, and messaging connectivity to Triple Zero and a modern data-enabled call system; it's the least we should expect from the most important phone number in Australia.

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