Mobile phone users hit by phone and internet outages following natural disasters, including bushfires and floods, may not be able to temporarily switch providers, a parliamentary probe has heard. Temporary emergency roaming services could enable Australians to connect to any available mobile network during natural disasters, should a network’s infrastructureContinue Reading

Some locals in a small South Australian town are up in arms and demanding compensation from telecommunications giant Telstra after a rolling network outage disrupted coverage from last week. Port Pirie businesswoman and Telstra customer Claire Marks, who used to run a fish and chip and pizza shop in theContinue Reading

Telstra has gained new customers following the 14-hour Optus outage last week, the nation’s biggest telco has confirmed. But the exact number of disgruntled customers defecting from Optus this time around was yet to be determined. Speaking at the annual investor day, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady said it wasContinue Reading

Small telcos have emerged as the winners of Optus’s disastrous communications outage, raking in record numbers as customers fled their embattled competitor. Australia’s telco industry is fairly centralised, with the main players — Optus, Telstra and Vodafone — lending their networks to several smaller, less popular providers. That’s why, whenContinue Reading

Optus has apologised after leaving the Australian economy reeling with an outage leaving hundreds of thousands of businesses without internet access and other services. Millions of Australians were without mobile and NBN services after the nation’s second largest telecommunications provider reported outages early on Wednesday. The telco says that itsContinue Reading