ATA OPENING STATEMENT – Senate Inquiry into 000 Outages

ATA submission to the inquiry can be found here: 251125-ATA-Submission—Senate-Inquiry-into-Triple-Zero-Service-Outage.pdf

Thank you Chair and good afternoon Senators, thank you for the opportunity to appear today.

I’d like to open by putting the recent 000 outage in context. The Triple Zero service today exists in a completely different world to when it was introduced in 1961.

Triple Zero was introduced when we had just one fixed-line network operator, and just one type of home phone.

Today, we have three national mobile networks, a new national fixed line network in the NBN, tens of thousands of different phones, and new ways of contacting Triple Zero, including via smartwatches, and Wi-Fi and satellite.

This competitive market has delivered enormous benefits to Australians. But it has also created a complex ecosystem for the Triple Zero service, with various responsibilities on networks, device-makers, and emergency service operators.

The regulatory environment around this complex ecosystem has improved since the 2023 Optus outage and the Bean Review, which sets the scene for recent events.

Where does the Australian Telecommunications Alliance fit into all this? The ATA is not a lobby group. Under of the Telecommunications Act, we are recognised as the body responsible for industry codes in a co-regulatory environment, and also as an approved Standards Development Organisation (SDO) to make technical standards.

The ATA was tasked with delivering 3 of the Bean Review’s 18 recommendations.

First, the ATA developed an industry code which facilitates testing arrangements between mobile network operators and a Controlled Test Facility to run six-monthly tests on devices and networks in simulated outages. This work is supported by the Device End-To-End Service Testing Group, which includes both telcos and device makers.

Second, we updated the Australian Standard for mobile devices to strengthen testing requirements for emergency calls, including testing of “camp on” features when a device’s home network is down.

Third, we updated the Emergency Call Service Requirements Code and introduced new technical guidelines to include requirements for remote access to network management tools during a core network outage.

But recent events have shown there are further improvements that could be made to the regulatory framework.

Today, mobile devices are effectively self-certified. There is no public record of devices that have the Regulatory Compliance Mark, and there is no auditing process to verify compliance.

That’s why the ATA has recommended the establishment of public device register.

This would establish a public list of devices that have been certified as compliant with regulated technical standards, and would provide consumers, industry, and regulators with a single authoritative source of information of device compliance.

Thank you, and I welcome the Committee’s questions.