Telstra has successfully simulated new mobile functionality that would allow a phone to roam on another provider's network in the event of a disaster.
Dubbed temporary disaster roaming, the solution is specifically designed to address outages caused by natural disasters. For example, if the Optus network were to go down because of damaged infrastructure, its customers would be able to temporarily use the Telstra network.
This is similar to how calling Triple Zero works; anyone can call the number, provided they have mobile coverage - even if it's not from their specific mobile provider. Instead of just being able to call Triple Zero, a customer using temporary disaster roaming would be able to continue using their phone as normal.
Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, and the government have been working on a temporary disaster roaming solution since March 2023, and this week Telstra ran its first simulation of how it might work.
The telco started with a device on a mock network, killed that network, and then turned on temporary disaster roaming. This allowed the device to connect to the Telstra network.
Telstra Executive for Network Technology Development and Solution, Channa Seneviratne says that developing temporary disaster roaming has been complex.
"We have to take into account the stress it would put on any surviving networks, and the technical work required to get it going," said Seneviratne.
"We’ve taken the learnings from other countries and done a lot of work as an industry to develop a potential solution that could work in Australia and help regional communities impacted by natural disaster remain connected."
"While there are technical, process and financial challenges to overcome, the learnings from our simulation will help guide ongoing conversations with industry and government to help make this temporary disaster roaming solution a reality."
At this stage, there is no firm timeline for when temporary disaster roaming may go from simulation to reality.
Alex Choros
Related Articles
