Telcos have improved Triple Zero reliability, ATA argues

Australian telcos have delivered a range of measures to improve the reliability of Triple Zero and to ensure consumers are better informed about emergency calling, claims industry peak body the Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA).

The ATA’s statement coincided with last week’s release of the Senate report into the 2025 Triple Zero service outage, which included 11 recommendations aimed at overhauling the Triple Zero system — including the establishment of a statutory authority to take over Emergency Call Person operations and nationalise Triple Zero functions.

But according to ATA CEO Luke Coleman, Australian telcos have not been waiting for the report’s release in order to improve the reliability of networks and the integrity of Triple Zero — rather, they have spent the past 12 months working collaboratively on a range of measures to strengthen Triple Zero.

The ATA noted that the Australian telecommunications industry is driving a global campaign to maximise the reliability of emergency calling, having identified gaps in global mobile technology standards that can affect how some devices connect emergency calls when a customer’s usual mobile network is unavailable. Working with the ATA, mobile network operators Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom have collaborated with mobile device makers and technology vendors on a series of proposals to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the world governing body responsible for global mobile specifications. Their submission is expected to lead to improvements in the speed and success rate of mobile emergency call completion in situations when the customer’s usual mobile network is unavailable.

Australia’s mobile network operators, technology vendors and mobile device makers have also worked with the UTS National Telecoms Resilience Centre over the past year to test emergency calling in a range of outage scenarios. This testing led to improvements in the reliability of emergency calling across a range of handsets via software updates, and enabled the industry to propose improvements to global specifications for mobile devices.

Furthermore, Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom are now ready to activate Temporary Disaster Roaming (TDR), which will allow customers to temporarily switch to an alternative mobile network, where available, if their usual mobile service has been disrupted to due to severe weather, bushfires or floods. The three telcos have developed the technical solution, completed rigorous testing and regional field trials, and drafted interim activation protocols that can be used in a crisis. These interim TDR arrangements are now in a technical state of readiness to activate in the event of a natural disaster.

Finally, Australia’s three mobile network operators and the ATA, in consultation with the Triple Zero Custodian, have recently launched a public information campaign to help ensure Australians can reliably connect to Triple Zero when needed — with a particular focus on what to do if your phone needs to connect to an alternative mobile network via so-called ‘emergency camp-on’. The advice was shared with millions of Australians in recent weeks via text messages, emails, app alerts, social media, company websites, on the triplezero.gov.au website, and via frontline customer service staff.

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