Australia’s three major mobile operators – Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – have today activated Temporary Disaster Roaming (TDR) to keep remote and regional Australians connected in the event of a natural disaster causing mobile network outages.
TDR can be activated in designated areas where another mobile network is available and can support additional call traffic.
This way communities can stay connected and communicate as well as find information through an available network service during an emergency.
In the event of a natural disaster or other circumstances, people whose usual mobile network is down will still be able to make calls and send and receive text messages and access data via another available network.
TDR will be provided at no extra cost to customers.
“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,” says Australian Telecommunications Alliance CEO Luke Coleman. “There is no additional cost to use it, and for most customers, connection will occur automatically once TDR has been activated and is available.
“Australians have always been able to use any available mobile network to call Triple Zero – even when their usual network is impacted by an outage or out of coverage.
“TDR takes this even further. When it is activated and available, it is designed to allow customers to stay in touch with family and friends via voice calls and texts, and access basic data to use emergency service apps, WhatsApp, and iMessage.”
The activation of TDR will be managed between the mobile network operators themselves through their Network Operations Centre (NOC) which is operational 24/7.
If an operator recognises their network has been disrupted by a natural disaster, it can then contact one of the surviving networks to assess whether they still have coverage and capacity to support the affected area.
Each of the operators has conducted field testing to ensure the capability is prepared for the high-risk weather season.
TDR will also work hand in hand with the existing Camp-On setup for Triple Zero calling.
Camp-On allows users to still connect to emergency services using another mobile network when their usual network is unavailable.
But an important consideration of TDR is ensuring the still-active networks have enough coverage and capacity to handle the additional customers without putting their existing services, including Triple Zero, at risk.
