ABC Radio Brisbane 12 November 2026

Logan Outages

Host: Luke Coleman is the Chief Executive of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance. Luke, how widespread is the outage at the moment?

Luke Coleman: It is affecting mobile and fixed line services around Logan. There are dozens of mobile towers that don’t have power, and the operators are moving as quickly as possible to get power restored to those sites.

All sites for mobile towers do have battery backup. But as you mentioned earlier, a mobile tower can use as much power as 10 homes. So that battery backup is a temporary solution and it’s not a silver bullet.

The telcos are moving as quickly as they can to get backup power generators on-site. Of course, it needs to be safe to do so. In many areas, there are trees that have come down across the road or across power lines. The telcos are working closely with state emergency services to ensure there’s safe access to get those towers up and running as quickly as possible.

Host: The loss of power, is it equipment that was damaged or just wires down, do you happen to know?

Luke Coleman: In many cases, it’s a combination of both. Ultimately, if the power goes out, the site will go out. Now, it will default back to battery backup on those sites. But if it’s the case that the tower itself has also been damaged, that will mean that it stays offline. In some cases, it could even be that the battery backup itself is damaged in extreme weather conditions – so we would need to look at that on a site-by-site basis.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, though, it is a power outage that results in that site going down. And when battery backup does kick in, it can keep that site going for a period of time. But if it’s overnight or more than 12 hours in many cases, that battery backup will need to be substituted by a backup generator. So there’s a range of options that telcos have to keep those sites up and running, and they’re doing everything in their power to get them back up as quickly as they can.

Host: Telstra is apparently heading out there with portable generators. My assumption is that a portable generator doesn’t take that long to hook up.

Luke Coleman: Often the problem isn’t just getting it hooked up, you’re right. Once it gets on site with the portable generator, things get moving pretty quickly. The challenge is getting to the site in a way that is safe for the technicians to do so. So that’s why you’ve got the telcos working closely with state emergency service organisations to get them access to those sites to make sure that it’s safe to navigate through. You often need some heavy-duty vehicles to get those generators out to those sites and get them hooked up. So, yes, it can be done quickly, but it must be safe to do so.

Host: What does it mean for people when 5G and 4G is knocked out on both Optus and Telstra? People can use an SOS service, but what about if people need to call the SES, the State Emergency Service, can they do that?

Luke Coleman: If you’ve got all of the mobile networks down in an area, you will not be able to make any kind of phone call, either a triple zero call or a normal telephone call. However, if there is any mobile network which is still online, if your usual provider is facing an outage but there is another network available, your phone will default to that other network to make a triple zero call.

If you need to call in an emergency to triple zero, your phone will do what’s called “camp-on”. It will camp-on to any other available network so that you can call triple zero. In areas if all networks are down, if both Optus, Telstra and TPG Vodafone are all down in a certain area, go to find a pay phone, go to find a fixed line phone if you can.

Now, it is the case in some areas here that because of these power outages, NBN services are also down. So if you are in a life-threatening emergency and you need to call triple zero and you can’t do so on a mobile, try to get to a payphone or find someone with a fixed line telephone where you can try to make that call – use any available option.

Host: Given that this is nearly a normal sort of event in Queensland because of natural climate reasons, should we be considering more satellite backups, you know, more Starlink fallback options?

Luke Coleman: You’re right that emergency services have been looking at Starlink for areas where they’re either beyond the range of mobile network coverage or in an emergency where they’ve got to stay connected. It’s important to remember that like any telecommunications network, you need to have power. Even if you’ve got a Starlink terminal at your home or attached to your vehicle, you’ve got to have power to make that terminal work.

So if the power is out, you may still have trouble connecting. But you’re right, it’s important to have as many connectivity options as you possibly can during an emergency. We’ve got the National Broadband Network for fixed line services. We’ve got three mobile networks for mobile services. We’ve also got Starlink. And, of course, NBN also has satellite services, although that’s predominantly for regional and remote areas – it wouldn’t be the case in Logan. But if you’re in a disaster-prone area, having as many connectivity options as possible is the safest way to ensure that you can stay connected.

Host: Luke, thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.

Luke Coleman: Thanks for having me on the program.

Host: Luke Coleman is Chief Executive of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance.

ENDS