Overview
- Communications Minister Anika Wells directed ACMA to mandate a public register that displays network outages in real time, with technical design to be developed with industry.
- The Senate approved a public inquiry into September’s Optus failure, scheduling the first hearing for Monday and planning to call company executives, with powers to compel attendance if required.
- Legislation establishing a Triple Zero custodian passed, and maximum penalties for breaches of Triple Zero obligations were increased from $10 million to $30 million.
- The inquiry will examine actions by telcos, the regulator and the minister, with ACMA and Optus to appear and Singtel flagged for scrutiny of oversight of its Australian subsidiary.
- From November 1, new rules require telcos to notify customers about local outages, test Triple Zero during upgrades, and enable call fallback to other networks, while Optus pursues an independent review led by Dr Kerry Schott and cooperates with ACMA.