Telstra’s report into its nationwide outage, released today, has reinforced the need for enforceable reliability standards to be established.
It confirms the massive 8 July network outage that disrupted Triple Zero access, transport networks and payment systems was the result of fundamental governance failures from the telco, rather than a technical fault outside their control.
The report, prepared by external investigators, found that Telstra failed to treat network timing as a critical “sovereign function”, with no clear ownership of the system, insufficient technical expertise to manage it, and weak change management and documentation practices.
ACCAN, the peak communications consumer body, says the findings confirm what consumers have long suspected: Australia cannot keep relying on telcos ‘best efforts’ when it comes to the reliability of an essential service.
ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said that, “we rely on telcos to ensure that their networks are managed with the seriousness commensurate with public safety. This report shows that didn’t happen – not because the problem was unforeseeable; in fact, it was very much foreseen – but Telstra didn’t treat it as a priority until it caused a national outage.”
“At the core of this governance failure is that Telstra did not designate time coordination with the level of importance that it deserves. A function critical enough to bring down calls, payments and emergency services nationwide should never have been left without clear ownership.”
“The report also points to insufficient technical expertise supporting this critical system. It is deeply disturbing that a business as profitable as Telstra did not have the in-house capability to properly maintain a function this critical to its network.”
“This confirms, again, that we must see clear and enforceable reliability standards in this sector. We must drive practices and processes that will prevent failure in the first place. We need enforceable standards that require telcos to properly resource and govern the critical systems Australians depend on.”
‘This failure is the latest in a string of telco network outages. At this point it is clear we have a systemic failure of sector governance, and the government must step in to address this problem by setting clear reliability requirements before the next avoidable outage hits. There is legislation before Parliament next week that can be amended to introduce such reliability requirements.”
ACCAN’s own research shows that, among those with a firm view, 94% of Australians support minimum reliability requirements for mobile networks. The findings released today add weight to that call.
“Every outage of this scale is a reminder that Australians have no guarantee there won’t be a repeat. What we’ve seen here is a failure governance, not only technology – but the fix is available to government in this upcoming sitting period,” Ms Bennett concluded.
About us:
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is Australia’s peak communication consumer organisation. The operation of ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.
