Topics: Telstra outage
Trent Nikolic: Sarah Henderson is the Shadow Communications Minister. She’s jumped on the line for me this morning. Senator, thank you so much for taking the time. I’m not making this up. We’ve resorted to calling you on WhatsApp today because you’re with Telstra.
Senator Henderson: I am indeed. Good morning, Trent. Yes, I am with Telstra, so I cannot make calls or send SMSs from where I am but I’m connecting via WhatsApp Wi-Fi. But this is pretty alarming. Widespread outages across this country and we’ve even had reports of people being trapped in trains on the network in Victoria. Of course, when our communications fail the whole economy crashes, so I know that Telstra is working very hard to try and remedy this. But they’ve put out a statement saying that some mobile data and access and some phone calls are impacted. It looks to be very extensive. And of course, the impact is alarming. So I do hope and trust that the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, is onto this. We will and should expect a proper statement from the government as to when these services will be remedied and rectified. But it is pretty concerning we’ve had a couple of pretty horrid years, including of course losing access to Triple Zero. The most recent outage was Optus’s outage last year. I am pleased to report though, Trent, that Triple Zero I understand is working on the Telstra network. I did make a couple of test calls this morning where it didn’t work but I’m now reliably informed it is working and those calls are camping on to another network, presumably Optus, so that is one positive out of what’s happening this morning.
Trent Nikolic: Now, Sarah, the point you make I think is worth revisiting. We’ve talked about emergency services, trains. I’ve got messages here as well, though, in the way that it filters down. Michael says, I’m a mobile mechanic. His Waze mapping software’s down. He doesn’t have a physical street directory to get to where he needs to go to see his clients. So I think this filters all the way down. What I think is a concern, adding to what you’ve said, Sarah, is that this is a major outage. It’s our biggest telco and from Telstra thus far, it’s been radio silence. The only thing we’ve seen is a social media post, which I think you referenced. “We’re looking into an issue affecting some mobile calls and data connections. If you’re having trouble connecting at first, try again, as it may work on a retry. We’re on it and we’ll share an update as soon as it’s fixed. Thanks for bearing with us.” Is that good enough from Telstra?
Senator Henderson: Look, I want to see as much information as possible and particularly for people who are impacted right now. So we’ve got some commuters who are literally stuck in carriages on V-Line in Victoria. We’ve got Sydney regional trains not running on the Southern Highlands line, and I also understand between Newcastle and Maitland, there’s some limited bus replacement services as train companies are scrambling to try and deal with the outage. There’s also payment apps. I understand Tyro has been impacted and that has affected EFTPOS services to some 80,000 businesses. And all regional train lines in Victoria have been shut down due to a radio network fault caused by the outage. And as you mentioned, Trent, there’s also issues internal issues with emergency services. Look, this is alarming. It does again remind us how critical our communications infrastructure is. We not only rely on it everyday, the economy is dependent on this every single minute. Our lives depend on sound communications infrastructure, so clearly we need to know very quickly what went wrong, how it can be avoided, so that this never happens again. And of course, the government has to move very quickly to reassure all Australians.
Trent Nikolic: Trent Nikolic for Mark Levy. I’m speaking to Shadow Minister for Communications, Sarah Henderson, on WhatsApp, of all things. A couple of you saying that the WhatsApp connection is very clear and can we use it more often. Lots of messages here. Damien saying service back in Yagoona. Jenny says we can’t get to see it too easily at the moment, Sarah, but service is back in Lithgow, so not easy to get out there from Sydney. Rowan in Mossvale. Someone in Cronulla telling me it’s back. Gary out in Griffith. Hello to everyone in the Riverina, Singleton, Willy, he’s up there in Singleton saying he’s got it as well. Sarah, the question that I’ve been asked as well by a lot of listeners via the text line is: why isn’t there a better fail-safe? Surely things like our regional trains should have a backup network or the layperson would just assume that they do. Is that a fair point?
Senator Henderson: It is absolutely a fair point. All of these critical services should have appropriate backups. Of course, I would imagine that in our hospitals and aged care centres, hopefully there is proper backup, particularly for those who depend on digital connectivity in hospitals, there should be proper backup. But I do think that this will require a full examination and review as to the appropriate backups that we need as a country if a network like Telstra does go down. I mean, it is just horrific to think that people are trapped in train carriages, that people can’t exit train stations. It is a live situation happening right now. I don’t have access to all information. So that information may have been outdated or not, or been superseded, so I just want to make that very clear, Trent.
But certainly the government, the Albanese government, the Prime Minister and the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, must reassure all Australians, in so far as what has happened. But Australians must also know that if there is an outage like this, that there are appropriate backups because at the end of the day our communications infrastructure is critical to our health and wellbeing and safety. And last year, when Triple Zero failed, we saw that a number of people died. The consequences can be tragic. I do again reiterate, and we’ve been informed, and this has been confirmed by Victoria Police, Triple Zero is working on Telstra. Certainly I understand in Victoria but anyone who is in a perilous position should really just make sure that they have got proper connectivity and that they are safe.
Trent Nikolic: Yep, absolutely. One last one before you go. I’m hoping to speak to the government about this later in the show. Kristy McBain’s the acting Communications Minister right now as we speak. I think just to reiterate something you said there, Sarah, you’d like to hear from them as I would today.
Senator Henderson: Oh, hang on. I’ve just got some breaking news from Telstra and I’ve just received a message that Telstra is experiencing a server issue, which Telstra is investigating and is causing network impacts. This impacted the whole network but restoration is now at just under 90 per cent. Now I’m reading this literally as I’m speaking to you: ‘Triple Zero calling follows different settings in the network and is therefore not impacted in the same way. We have seen a very small number of reports that we are investigating. As part of our standard process, we will conduct welfare checks when a call fails, and we have been doing this. We ask that customers do not try to call Triple Zero to test only and use this service only if they need it.’
Now, that’s a very good point as well. So that is hot off the press. I’ve just received that message one minute ago from a spokesperson for Telstra, and I understand that Telstra is going to be doing an update at 9.30.
Trent Nikolic: Excellent. Thank you so much, Sarah. Really appreciate you jumping on.
Senator Henderson: Thank you so much. Great to talk to you.