Network service during emergencies

In today’s society, almost all aspects of modern life involve some form of digital communications. Consequently, the smooth operation of communications services is essential at any time.

As we have seen across Australia, with recent natural disasters including flood and bushfire, and as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, pressure and reliance on mobile communications networks has increased.

It is therefore key that communications providers focus on resilience, optimise their processes and procedures internally and across the industry, harden their infrastructure to the extent possible and cooperate effectively with all stakeholders on a National and State level, including with other infrastructure providers, particularly the energy providers.

The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and its members greatly appreciate the professional and volunteer firefighters and members of the Australian Defence Force who helped protect telecommunications infrastructure and personnel from the fires in many Australian States during late 2019 and early 2020.

AMTA is engaged in the development of new industry Disaster Management Protocols as a part of the Communications Resilience Admin Industry Group (CRAIG) within Communications Alliance.

This exercise is designed to create a common operating model for service providers during catastrophic events – including but not limited to bushfires – to provide greater operational consistency of actions and responses and assist multi-stakeholder communication.