System that that gives Aussies access to other telcos during natural disaster set to be unveiled
Australia’s telcos are set to change to a system that would allow Australians that have their network access impacted in a weather emergency to access a rival provider.
Under the proposal, temporary disaster roaming (TDR) will be activated in times of natural disasters in regional and rural areas of Australia that will see telcos allow their customers to connect to other networks if their own is disrupted.
New protocol will allow Aussies to temporarily access other networks if their telcos go down during a natural disaster. Getty
The major telcos, Telstra, Optus and TPG, will have to work together to decide when to activate it, and must ensure other networks have the capability to take on extra traffic and calls.
Under TDR, people whose normal mobile network is unavailable can make calls, texts and access basic data from another network.
“There is no additional cost to use it, and for most customers, connection will occur automatically once TDR has been activated and is available,” Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) CEO Luke Coleman said.
“It is designed to allow customers to stay in touch with family and friends via voice calls and texts, and access basic data to use emergency service apps, WhatsApp, and iMessage.”
Customers will not have to take any action for this to occur, the swap will be made automatically once the protocol is activated.
It comes as Optus and Telstra have both come under scrutiny for outages in the last 18 months that have compromised the ability for their customers to call Triple Zero.
The ATA has clarified the measures can only be implemented during times of natural disaster and when agreed upon by all telcos, and will not become a regular solution for outages that occur outside this context.
“Temporary Disaster Roaming has been developed by telcos to provide another way for regional and remote Australians to stay connected during natural disasters,” Coleman said.
The ATA said there has been rigorous testing and trials to ensure that TDR is ready for use and will work when required.
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