It was announced today that effective immediately, in times of natural disaster, those people affected by the loss of their phone signal can effectively and seamlessly utilise a competitors service to stay in touch and to help stay safe.

The announcement of Temporary Disaster Roaming (TDR) was made by The Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) , the peak body of the Australian telecommunications industry with board members from a number of telcos and internet providers.

Where certain conditions are met and within designated areas, representatives of the carriers, who will staff a Network Operations Centre (NOC) 24/7 in the event of their network failing will contact rival telcos and activate the TDR.

Whilst the ability to “camp-on” to rival networks to access triple-zero has for some time been operational, it hasn’t been without it’s well-documented challenges

This is different. This will allow calls, texts and limited internet access.

Customers will not have to activate or change settings but may notice a change of carrier name on their device and the service is restricted to handsets capable of VoLTE roaming.

The fact that this announcement has come from the peak body with representatives from all the big network participants, should mean that cooperation should be guaranteed when required.

Domestic mobile roaming is not a new concept. In fact in 2016 an ACCC inquiry found that the proposal would not “promote the long-term interests of end-users” and was rejected.

This new TDR essentially allows this feature but in a very controlled manner and and only under certain circumstances.

The announcement makes an important clarification. If unmanaged, the ability of a second carrier to handle the traffic from all customers from a failed rival network may be untenable and it may in fact cause it to fail as well.

It therefore states that “TDR is designed for specific disaster scenarios and may be activated in designated areas where another mobile network is available and has sufficient capacity to safely support additional customers. The priority is to help communities stay connected to essential communications and information without putting the network services that people rely on at risk during an emergency”

Note the use of the words “network is available and has sufficient capacity”

That makes perfect sense and attempts to mitigate the risks of a huge demand on the remaining network(s)

What is also interesting is that this is ready to be implemented immediately, ahead of storm, bushfire and cyclone season.

The participating parties have been working on the challenges that such an agreement would pose and believe they have overcome the obstacles. Those challenges would have been considerable.

Images courtesy of Telstra

It is important to note that there may be circumstances where this wholesale temporary transfer of traffic may not be possible, either the fact that the region may not have competitor towers or that network could not cope with the extra load.

Camp-on of triple-zero calls however will remain in place

“Temporary Disaster Roaming has been developed by telcos to provide another way for regional and remote Australians to stay connected during natural disasters” said ATA CEO Luke Coleman.

“If your usual mobile network is impacted by a natural disaster, TDR will enable you to make calls, send texts, and use basic data via another mobile network where there’s one available,” Mr Coleman said. “There is no additional cost to use it, and for most customers, connection will occur automatically once TDR has been activated and is available.”

This is a positive move and one that illustrates that if you get the right people in the right room with the right attitude, anything is possible. As summer approaches and the risk of natural disaster increases, it is comforting to know that this new system is not only ready, but has the cooperation of operators nationally