ABC Radio Sydney Drive 24 August 2026
Summary
Luke Coleman, CEO of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance, outlined a campaign to educate Australians on reaching Triple Zero (000) during emergencies, particularly in rural areas where mobile coverage covers less than 40% of the landmass. He advised that if an initial call fails to connect within five seconds, callers should hang up and try again, staying on the line for up to 60 seconds to allow phones to scan for alternative networks under international standards. Coleman emphasized that existing safeguards, including the camp on system and welfare checks, are in place, but noted that Starlink satellite services currently do not support voice calls to Triple Zero.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: Let’s bring in Luke Coleman now. He is the CEO of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance. That’s the peak body for Australia’s telecom sector. Afternoon to you, Luke.
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: Thanks for having me on the program.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: You were listening there to Carol. Do you feel as though the telecommunications providers are complying with those standards, particularly in rural and remote areas?
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: Look, for the purposes of this campaign, communicating to customers about Triple Zero, it’s really to ensure that everybody is armed, that they’ve got the right information at their fingertips so that they know what’s going to happen when attempt to call Triple Zero. You’ve just mentioned regional and remote areas. So, for people who might be out of the coverage range of their usual network provider, if there is another network available, your call to Triple Zero will still be able to connect via an alternative network. Now, remember, in Australia, while we have coverage that goes to more than 99% of where people live and work around Australia, that’s still less than 40% of Australia’s landmass. So we have large parts of Australia that don’t currently have mobile coverage. But wherever there is coverage from any mobile network provider, if you call Triple Zero the systems are in place so that call will connect. And that’s the information that we’re getting out to consumers today.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: Okay. And the number’s 1300 222 702. Keen to hear if you received the Triple Zero tips and what you made of them. It’s 16 minutes past 3 on 702 ABC Sydney. Luke, a text I’ve had in here is from a listener saying, waiting 60 seconds in an emergency would feel like an eternity. This is really scary. When we talk about that delay with the emergency camp on process, would it be as much as 60 seconds? What would the typical delay be if a phone’s trying to connect to another network?
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: So, the advice we’re giving today, if your initial call doesn’t connect within around five seconds, hang up and try again. On a subsequent attempt, stay on the line for up to 60 seconds. And you’re right. When you’re in an emergency, if somebody’s life is at risk, up to 60 seconds probably feels like a lifetime. So, the reason we’re giving that advice is this is a global standard that is used in mobile phones. So in Australia, we don’t manufacture mobile phones. We import them from overseas. Those phones are all built to a certain international standard. Those phones when they’re not connected to their usual network, maybe you’re out of coverage range, maybe there’s a network outage. There could be a variety your phone is using that international standard to scan for other available networks. So that process, it can take up to 60 seconds. Now, it can happen more quickly than that, but we’re saying to try to stay on the line for up to 60 seconds to give your phone the best chance to connect via another network. Now, of course, if you’re facing an emergency, if you’ve got someone else nearby that’s got a phone that’s already connected to another network, I would expect you’d be trying to call Triple Zero via that phone as well. You know, no network is going to be 100% bulletproof. No network is going to be able to be completely impervious to outages, but these are some tips to give consumers the best possible chance of success in the rare event that they don’t have coverage from their usual mobile network provider.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: Okay, I’m getting some texts in, Luke, and obviously their phone’s working because they’re texting us saying they haven’t received the advice yet. But just to be clear, how is the message being spread? Today’s day one, isn’t it? It’s set to go out throughout the week, is that right?
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: That’s right. So don’t worry if you haven’t received the messages yet. It’s going to be going out throughout the week. So it’ll be going through the three major mobile network operators being Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom, which owns the Vodafone brand. But then there’s also a lot of what we call Mobile Virtual Network Operators, so that’s Boost Mobile, Dodo, ALDI Mobile, Woolworths and Coles Mobile. There’s a lot of brands that use the networks of the major mobile network operators. Those brands have also been provided the messages, and they’ll be sending those out to their customers as well. So don’t worry if you haven’t seen it yet, but you can always jump onto the trusted resource: triplezero.gov.au. That provides all of the advice that’s going out to customers today and customers have been pointed towards that website if they had any questions so they can check that information there.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: Okay. I mean, reading this information and even speaking with Carol Bennett earlier, I just want to clarify one thing because Carol was also saying, oh, there’s been a misunderstanding around how the Triple Zero system works. People need to be better informed about how it works. I don’t know. Does this put –– the onus a bit on the customer. I wonder, shouldn’t the telcos be working towards fewer outages in the first place or a better system that doesn’t rely on us having to read an email with tips on it?
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: Well, we have got safeguards in place already. This camp on system, which we’re talking about today, that has always been in place with mobile networks. If camp on, for whatever reason, fails to work, telcos need to conduct a welfare check. So either the telco or an emergency service organisation would call that customer back in the event that a call has failed, to check on their welfare. Now remember that mobile networks are working more than 99% of the time. That’s why it’s front page news if there is ever an outage because we’ve become so reliant on networks operating all of the time that it’s a very, very rare occurrence where you do face an outage. But that’s why we’ve got these safeguards in place. Telcos are subject to some very heavy fines in the event that the system doesn’t work. But that’s why we’ve got a number of safeguards. You’ve got camp on if your usual network is not there. If camp on doesn’t work, you will receive a welfare check. But remember, in instances where there might be a technical problem that you aren’t able to get through, you can always try and find another access method. Maybe that’s a friend nearby who’s got a phone on a different network. Maybe it’s a landline phone or calling over Wi-Fi if you’re connected to Wi-Fi at home. You just want to have as many options available as possible so that you’re able to get through.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: Okay, we’re almost out of time, Luke, but just a quick one from this listener, from Eddie. He wants to know if Starlink is included in the scheme. When we talk about camp on and all those mechanisms, where does Starlink in rural and regional areas fit in? I imagine that’s a data, sort of a Wi-Fi question, isn’t it?
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: So it depends on the circumstances. For example, Telstra already offers a service called Satellite-to-Mobile. So Telstra has an agreement with Starlink where Starlink will be able to send basic text messages, for example, using the Starlink service and some basic data services. But it will not provide for Triple Zero calling because voice or carrier grade voice is not yet enabled via Starlink. But you will still have a number of services available. If you’ve got a Starlink dish at home, for example, and you’re calling using voice over Wi-Fi, you may still be able to contact Triple Zero. What we’re talking about when it comes to camp on is using other available mobile networks where you have coverage, that process will automatically seek and jump onto one of those other mobile networks.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: We appreciate you coming on, Luke. Thank you very much.
ATA CEO Luke Coleman: Thanks for having me on the program.
ABC Sydney Drive Host: Thomas Oriti: That’s Luke Coleman there, the CEO of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance. And as Luke says, you should expect to see that advice if you’re with one of the three major providers.
ENDS
