Telstra failed flooded communities, NSW inquiry finds

Telstra has been castigated for making “useless” infrastructure location decisions, failing to effectively plan to mitigate future disasters, and not learning from past disaster experiences by the parliamentary inquiry into the response to major flooding across NSW in February and March.

In its findings, the committee said: “Telstra has not learnt from previous flood experiences.

"Instead of relocating mobile phone towers to higher ground, it continues to place support equipment and energy supply at ground level, rendering them useless during floods.” 

The inquiry also found that NSW government agencies and telecommunications providers failed to ensure that communities affected by the February-March floods had adequate emergency communications.

The critical findings were released this week after a series of regional and city hearings and formal submissions.

In total, the committee made 21 findings and 37 recommendations. 

Chaired by Labor's Walt Secord, the committee begin its inquiry in April 2022 and received presentations from Telstra network operations executive Peter Sutherland, NSW government chief information and digital officer Greg Wells, and Telstra Infraco operations executive Bronwyn Clere.

The Northern Rivers region is predominantly serviced by Telstra and NBN Co, with various satellite services facilitating mobile blackspot and remote areas.

Whilst the committee appreciated that telecommunication services providers such as Telstra “worked hard to restore services as soon as it was safe to do so,” it declared, “more needs to be done to mitigate a complete loss of communication in natural disasters.” 

Telstra told the inquiry that as of mid-June 2022, mobile phone reception and coverage had been fully restored, with the exception of Mullumbimby and Buckendoon, which are relying on Cells on Wheels (COWs) until the rebuild at these sites is complete. 

The committee called for the NSW government to consult with telecommunications and satellite providers to investigate ways to avoid the complete loss of telecommunication services in natural disasters. 

The inquiry noted the lack of availability of satellite phones during the crisis, and emphasised the need for the distribution of satellite phones and terminals to community hubs in flood prone areas. 

It also called for other strategies to be found by the carriers to help communities highly likely to become isolated in a natural disaster. 

Telstra's Lismore exchange showing height of flood. Image: Telstra

The inquiry further recommended investigation into:

• the distribution of satellite phones and satellite terminals to community hubs in flood prone areas;
• the prioritisation of services for communities that are highly likely to become isolated in a natural disaster; and
• the establishment of appropriate protocols to ensure that this equipment is readily available and has a battery backup.

The NSW government advised that 802 commercial telecommunications carrier sites were impacted, with most site outages restored within two weeks when it was safe to do so. 

Telstra advised that its facilities throughout north-east NSW and Sydney were disrupted between February 28 and March 21, with 22 communities in north east NSW and one community in Sydney becoming isolated. 

During the inquiry, Telstra conceded that were limitations to deploying temporary infrastructure such as COWs, which it deployed following the floods. 

There is only a limited number of such facilities, most couldn’t be deployed until roads were open, and they have reduced capacity and coverage compared to permanent base stations.

Technicians were also unable to deploy temporary facilities until emergency service agencies declare a location is safe. 

Choice of locations questioned

During the inquiry, the committee asked why a mobile base station was located in flood-prone Woodburn, and whether that was the reason for the loss of telecommunications across the region. 

The Woodburn exchange services a significant portion of the flood affected areas.

Telstra’s network operations executive, Peter Sutherland, said that the telecommunication outages on the North Coast were not the result of the loss of the Woodburn mobile station, but rather the result of power loss combined with 17 mobile base stations becoming inundated with water and 35 fibre optic cable connections breaking due to landslips.

Telstra fibre was cut when this bridge washed away. Image: Telstra

When pressed about why the Woodburn mobile base station was located where it was, Sutherland explained that it was originally built to serve only the community of Woodburn, and noted that if mobile networks are in flood-prone areas then all they can do is “build the networks in a way that enables them to be restored as quickly as possible should an event occur”. 

Telstra executives also said that there were no requests made for providing satellite phones during the February-March 2022 floods, noting that Telstra does not carry many satellite phones and that it is not a “core business” of Telstra. 

Additionally, Telstra submitted in answers on notice that it was “strongly of the view that the deployment of satellite phones … during an emergency is not an accountability that should sit with Telstra”. 

The organisation argued that Telstra is not in a position to decide who should receive satellite phones, nor does it have the logistics to transport the phones in an emergency. 

The carrier said this issue should sit with a government department or agency or other body with “adequate visibility” of the situation.

Telco Authority fared better

In a stark contrast, the committee heard that the Public Safety Network, run by the NSW government’s Telco Authority and used by emergency services agencies, worked 99.92 percent of the time during the floods. 

When questioned why the Telco Authority network worked and Telstra’s failed, NSW government CIDO Greg Wells explained that that public safety networks are point-to-point radio networks, typically built on high locations, so they can communicate effectively between regions, whilst telecommunications networks are located within local communities to serve their communities and as a result may be built in areas that are more prone to flooding.

Telstra and industry respond

Reacting to the report findings, a Telstra spokesperson told iTNews it is "always looking for ways to improve the resiliency of our networks to help mitigate the impacts of increasing climate impacts.”

Telstra said the request to moving telco infrastructure such as mobile towers and exchanges “can be difficult, but we will continue to engage with stakeholders to explore where this makes sense.

“We agree with the recommendation that evolving technologies, including satellite, have an important role to play in providing coverage given the majority of disruptions are caused by mains power outages. 

“Given the growing frequency of these events it makes sense for relevant authorities, safety agencies, businesses and communities to assess their needs for satellite backup,” the Telstra spokesperson said.

Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton told iTnews that the industry group would look closely at the comments from the NSW Parliamentary inquiry and see what additional responses and actions might be warranted. 

Stanton defended the carriers' response to the disaster.

“Australia’s telecommunications carriers moved quickly to deploy emergency resources to repair sustained damage and put in place augmented communications capacity in the areas affected by flooding," he said.

“I think those efforts need to be recognised, including by politicians who have the community’s best interests at heart, but probably don’t have first-hand experience of the operational and engineering challenges on the front-lines in these situations."

He added that “natural disasters, be they floods, fires, severe storms or other cataclysmic events, present multiple challenges for many types of publicly-used infrastructure. 

“There has been a warranted focus on resilience of community infrastructure generally in recent years – brought into sharper focus by the 2019-20 bushfire events.

"Resilience to disastrous events cannot always, unfortunately, always guarantee an impervient result.”

Public warnings communication breakdown

The committee found that the NSW State Emergency Service failed in its public communication of flood warnings and evacuation information during the February-March 2022 floods, by issuing out of date, inaccurate and confusing messages. 

“Timely, accurate and clear public communication is critical for safe evacuation and rescue in serious flooding events.

“It is therefore especially concerning to hear about the failures in public communication during such a catastrophic flooding event” the report stated. 

This information flow failure was compounded by the inability to distribute emergency messages, as telecommunications and electricity networks had collapsed throughout the region and broadcast radio was most often all that remained.  

In response, the inquiry recommends that the NSW and federal governments work in tandem to develop a national cross-agency app to integrate all community services and agencies into a single platform to generate accurate and timely information from a single source during emergencies.