Improving the emergency call service during outages

We are proposing changes to the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019 so that telcos take additional steps to improve the reliability of the emergency call service during network outages. This includes new rules requiring carriers to:

• share real-time network information about outages with emergency services organisations. 
• report to the ACMA on the cause of a major outage that impacts the emergency call service and to give us detailed plans to avoid similar outages in the future.  

The new rules proposed are the second stage of implementing the Australian Government response to recommendations made in the Review into the Optus outage of 8 November 2023. The new rules are intended to create a clear set of requirements on telcos to manage calls to Triple Zero during network outages and to take steps to avoid similar outages in future. 

We invite your comments on the proposed rules requiring telcos to:

• enhance reliability of the emergency call service during outages
• take steps to avoid similar future outages. 

Click on the 'Upload submission' button at the top of the screen to send us your views. You can find details for sending submissions by post in the consultation paper.