The Network Reliability Framework (NRF) protects Telstra customers who have up to 5 fixed telephone services. It applies to customers and services that are eligible for the Customer Service Guarantee Standard.
The purpose of the NRF is to:
- improve consumer awareness of telephone service reliability
- improve Telstra’s fixed telephone network, particularly in regional and rural Australia
- improve community confidence in the reliability of Telstra’s fixed telephone network
- give us the power to make Telstra provide reliable services or take steps to improve
The NRF complements the Customer Service Guarantee Standard. The conditions are in the Carrier Licence Conditions (Telstra Corporation Limited) Declaration 1997.
We report on Telstra's performance against 3 levels of operation in our annual communications report.
Level 1: national and regional performance
Telstra must publish data on the reliability of its services. It reports at a national level and in 44 regions across Australia, known as field service areas. The 2 measures of reliability are:
- the percentage of services that do not experience a fault
- the percentage of time that services are available (not waiting for repair)
Telstra publishes Level 1 performance data each month.
Level 2: local cable performance
Level 2 reviews the performance of parts of the network known as cable runs. These are sets of 10 or 100 copper wire pairs within a physical cable sheath.
Telstra must identify the 40 lowest performing cable runs each month. They must assess them for 6 months and meet the targets to improve.
The target is a 90% decrease in the volume of average network events. If they miss this target, we may check their activities more closely and direct them to take action.
Level 3: individual service performance
Level 3 examines individual service performance. Telstra must act to prevent any service from experiencing:
- more than 3 faults in any 60-day period
- more than 4 faults in any 365-day period
Telstra must report to us any services that breach these thresholds. They take action to improve the reliability of services that do not meet these thresholds.