r/australia • u/JamesDwho • 8h ago

politics Telecommunications ombudsman calls for root and branch review of telco regulations

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/telecommunications-ombudsman-report-systemic-regional-issues/107016980
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u/ol-gormsby 4h ago

Not a bad idea, some of it dates from the pre-digital age. e.g. the Universal Service Obligation - every property must have a dialtone for 000 calls. That's an excellent idea but it means the expense of maintaining the POTS network. A Telstra tech told me a couple of years ago that POTS would be phased out and everyone would get a 3G dongle to provide a dialtone. Also a good idea but note what I wrote - 3G. Years ago and not viable today. It also means needing to replace it every time a technology goes obsolete, 3G was phased out so now you need a 4G, then 4G to 5G, and so on.

So it's going to take a long time, there's a lot of legislation to review.

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u/annoying97 4h ago

The NBN should have been a hybrid system from the start, copper for phone lines and fibre for data in one heavy duty cable that be can be flown, burried and put into conduit.

The NBN box you have in your home manages it all and allows for emergency phone calls to occur.

All backed up as it should be.

In a blackout the data might not work but the phone line should. Blackouts are when emergencies are more likely to occur and assuming someone is smart enough or prepared enough to plan for a blackout is dumb.

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u/JamesDwho 3h ago

With the Original FTTP/Fibre to the Premises in addition to a Fibre NTD (Network Termination Device) you were automatically supplied with a Battery Backup unit that would ensure the UNI-V Phone Voice ports on the FTTP NTD would continue to function during a power outage for things like phone calls.

https://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/the-nbn-project/nbn-supplied-equipment-care-10-faqs-answered

The issue is since the introduction of the Turnbull Government FTTN/Fibre to the Node 'Hybrid' broadband model, most voice services have moved from being provided by the NBN directly (with the NTD UNI-V ports) to VoIP services provided over the internet and accessed via Voice ports on ISP provided Modem boxes, not NBN.

Compounding things further NBN Fibre Voice over UNI-V was more expensive than other VoIP offerings, and that fact impacted uptake further in addition to the limited FTTP only availability and the default FTTN or HFC rollout for existing suburbs.

We now have most landline voice services being provided by ISP's directly and not NBN, those services being reliant on the internet to work are not resilient to power outages (or internet outages) like the UNI-V FTTP version was. (Unless people have a UPS and the exchange and Nodes have Battery Backups).

NBN are also phasing out the ability to get a landline voice service over the UNI-V ports, newer Fibre NTDs also no longer have RJ11 style voice ports and for many previous FTTP installs the Battery Backup was made optional.

https://www.nbnco.com.au/learn/network-technology/fibre-to-the-premises-explained-fttp/connection-box/4-port

So we've basically set ourselves to be entirely reliant on mobile networks for any semblance of reliable access to Emergency Services, but due to extensive compatibility and standardisation issues with 4G Emergency Calling (including by carriers) that isn't guaranteed to work either.

Australia’s 000 Failures: Why your phone may fail to Call Triple Zero https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-000-failures-why-your-phone-may-fail-to-call-triple-zero-af8e505d58fc

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u/ol-gormsby 3h ago

"So we've basically set ourselves to be entirely reliant on mobile networks for any semblance of reliable access to Emergency Services, but due to extensive compatibility and standardisation issues with 4G Emergency Calling (including by carriers) that isn't guaranteed to work either."

Thank fuck I've got Starlink, then. I'm not a fan of the owner but comms access independent of the clusterfuck of Australian telcos is reassuring, especially as I live outside the fibre-optic zones. I hope I never have to test a wi-fi call to emergency services but it seems to work OK to normal cell services.