Outage register needed to restore trust in telcos

Consumers deserve to know where and when telco outages occur, and need to see a transparent, public register of outages, says peak communications consumer body ACCAN in a new position paper published today.

Australia's current legal framework for outage reporting incorporates transparency and public accountability as essential principles. However, the way outages are communicated to the public varies greatly. Websites, social media pages, email, SMS and broadcast media all inform the public of outages, but there is no single source of truth.

The position paper, now available on the ACCAN website, calls for a national register on communications outages which would enhance transparency of outage reporting and help keep telcos accountable through data-driven oversight of network performance.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said that a known, centralised and searchable database of outages should be implemented to restore shaken trust in the telecommunications sector.

"Public confidence in telco services, including Triple Zero, have taken a real blow over recent weeks," Ms Bennett said.

“Telco services are essential, and consumers have a right to easily access information about the outages that impact their day to day lives.”

"Senate hearings last week revealed greatly concerning information that the Optus network had 272 reportable outages between 11 September and 8 October. Consumers have no way of accessing this information at present.”

“We simply have no way of knowing the 'when', the 'why', the 'who' and the 'where' of network outages, and this must change. It’s vital that consumer have a single source of information regarding network performance.”

“A national register of outages will consolidate the fragmented outage reporting framework, promote transparency, increase public scrutiny of telco performance, and identify outage trends.

“The telco industry has shown a consistent disregard for transparent information sharing. We look forward to seeing the establishment of this register, which we anticipate can be quickly implemented, with minimal additional compliance costs for the industry,” Ms Bennett concluded.