Optus and Telstra outages force telco industry to issue new 000 calling advice

Millions of Australians are about to get a text, an email, or see a social post from their telco explaining how to actually get through to Triple Zero (000) if something goes wrong.

It’s part of a new industry-wide campaign, and it comes after some genuinely serious network outages over the past 18 months left hundreds of Australians unable to connect to emergency services when they needed to most.

During the investigations into those Optus and Telstra outages, a few key problems were found with how end-user devices behave when trying to call 000. In some cases, those issues caused delays. In others, calls didn’t get through at all.

@trevorlong Some advice about your mobile and Triple Zero, things the telcos have learned can be vital in an emergency, I got these tips during our recent Two Blokes Talking Tech sponsored show with @Optus ♬ original sound – Trevor Long

So now the industry, through the Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA), is trying to explain a genuinely complex system in a way normal people can actually use in a crisis.

ATA CEO Luke Coleman said the campaign was developed closely with the three major mobile network operators and the Triple Zero Custodian.

“Our priority is to ensure Australians are equipped with simple advice they can recall and use in a worst-case scenario if they need to call Triple Zero and find their usual network is unavailable,” he said.

How your phone tries to call 000

Here’s the bit most people don’t know. When you dial 000, your phone first tries to connect using your own network. If that’s not available, either because you’re out of range or there’s an outage, your phone automatically tries to jump onto another mobile network instead.

It’s called an “emergency camp-on”, and the good news is you don’t have to do anything to make it happen. It’s automatic, it’s free, and it’ll even work without a SIM card in the phone.

The problem uncovered during the Optus and Telstra investigations is that this camp-on process can take a bit of time, and during that time there can be silence on the line. Understandably, that silence makes people panic and hang up.

The advice: don’t hang up too soon (except once)

This is the key message from the campaign.

If your first attempt to call 000 doesn’t connect within five seconds, hang up and try again straight away.

But on that second attempt, and any after it, stay on the line. Give it up to a full minute. Your phone needs that time to scan for other available networks and lock onto one.

Hanging up and redialling over and over doesn’t speed anything up. It just resets the clock.

What those little bars actually mean

Worth knowing before you’re ever in this situation:

• Normal bars: you’re connected to your own network as usual
• “SOS” or “SOS Only”: you’re outside your telco’s coverage but your phone can see another network to camp onto
• “No Service”: your phone can’t see any network, and won’t be able to call 000 at all

Three things telcos want you to do right now

The ATA and the major networks have also put together a short list of things every Australian should be doing, outage or not:

• Keep your phone’s software up to date. Updates can include changes to how emergency calling itself is handled.
• Restart your phone regularly. A full reboot helps make sure your network connections are properly set up.
• Turn on WiFi Calling. If the mobile network goes down, your phone can route a 000 call over WiFi instead.

What about satellite SOS?

Some newer phones also have satellite-based emergency features, like Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite. It’s worth being clear that these don’t work the same way.

Rather than making a direct call, these features use a satellite connection to send key details of your emergency to a third party, who then passes that on to emergency services. If your phone has this feature and can see a satellite connection, you’ll usually see a small satellite icon where your signal bars normally sit.

It’s not a replacement for a 000 call, but it’s another option if you’re somewhere with no mobile coverage at all.