Telcos face renewed pressure after fire outages leave people stranded and desperate

Victorians in bushfire-ravaged parts of the state were unable to reach family, and firefighters also lost connectivity during last week’s catastrophic conditions, prompting renewed calls for telecommunications to be secured during natural disasters.

Stephen Meyer, a local farmer group officer for the Natimuk area CFA stations in Victoria’s west, said he lost phone service while fighting the fire in the area on Friday. Meyer said this limited firefighters’ ability to tackle the blaze in a co-ordinated way.

“One of our commanders jumped in a vehicle and started finding fire trucks on the fire ground and giving them information. They did a great job ... because we couldn’t communicate properly.”

Lachlan Hick, who lost one of his two properties in the Natimuk fire, grabbed his two elderly neighbours when a wind change suddenly resulted in evacuation orders about 1pm on Friday. But there was no reception as they drove away from town, and his neighbours couldn’t communicate with their loved ones.

“That was the difficult part,” Hick said.

It was about 20 minutes before reception returned once they got close to Horsham.

Telstra confirmed a power outage at the Mount Arapiles mobile site, which covers Natimuk, temporarily cut services.

“Back-up power did not operate as expected,” western Victoria regional engagement manager Adrienne Holobowski said.

The generator had nine days’ worth of fuel, Telstra said, but suffered a mechanical fault in the extreme weather conditions. The failure is being investigated.

“Our teams restored services the following day once it was safe to access the site,” Holobowski said.

She noted Telstra had brought more than 100 mobile sites back online in the past week.

Federal member for Indi Helen Haines has renewed calls for telecommunications to be secured during natural disasters.

Multiple inquiries have advocated temporary disaster roaming, which allows for cross-network use if one network goes down. This is already available for Triple Zero calls, though it failed during last year’s Optus outages.

Haines, an independent whose electorate has been devastated by the Longwood fire, also called for mobile phone base towers to have back-up power to protect network coverage in emergencies.

Towong and Strathbogie shires experienced outages due to the Longwood fire. The Natimuk fire area was also affected.

“It’s an inconvenience on a regular day, but it’s a matter of life or death in a situation that we’re in right now,” Haines said.

Telstra, TPG and Optus began trialling disaster roaming in November.

The federal government has been working with the industry since 2023 on its commitment – recommended by the Senate’s Connecting the Country report, the ACCC’s regional mobile infrastructure inquiry, and the Bean review into the Triple Zero system – and Communications Minister Anika Wells said last year that she expected the telcos to make it work.

But Telstra warned challenges remained.

“While [temporary disaster roaming] is an innovative solution with the potential to provide temporary access to communications for regional and rural communities during disaster situations, there are several challenges to be managed,” Telstra wrote in its November submission to a parliamentary inquiry into Triple Zero outages.

“These include ensuring any surviving network is not overloaded from an influx of traffic causing it to fail, which would be an even worse outcome for the impacted community.”

An Optus spokeswoman said 112 mobile sites were affected by extreme heat and bushfires in Victoria over the weekend, but all had been fully restored.

“During the extreme weather, many sites lost mains power and operated on battery back-up. Our field teams worked around the clock in challenging conditions to deploy generators and maintain connectivity for customers,” she said. “Optus sites are designed to have a minimum of four hours battery back-up to ensure service continuity during power outages.”

A federal government spokeswoman said significant investments had been made through programs to boost the resilience of telco networks.

“Funding for these programs has helped deliver back-up batteries and generators for communications infrastructure to keep communities connected for longer periods during and following emergencies and natural disasters,” she said.

The federal government is separately pursuing universal outdoor mobile obligation, which it plans to launch in December 2027. The obligation would force telcos to provide phone call and text coverage and in part relies on satellites rather than solely on land-based infrastructure.

National Farmers’ Federation president Hamish McIntyre, who backs the universal outdoor mobile obligation, has also been calling for temporary disaster roaming.

“When natural disasters hit, people shouldn’t lose the ability to communicate just because one mobile network goes down. This can leave entire communities cut off,” McIntyre said.

“Farmers are often on the front line of fires, floods and storms, and they are critical to local emergency response. Communication is key to a fast and effective response.

“We’ve seen the Triple Zero fallback fail in recent outages. Strengthening that system is important, but communities also need to reach neighbours, family, and local responders.”

In a statement, the Australian Communications and Media Authority said funding initiatives assisted telcos to prepare for emergencies.

“Telecommunications providers undertake planning to manage power outages and to engage back-up generators in the event of power outages.”

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