A year-long Senate inquiry into repeated Triple Zero outages has handed down 11 recommendations, including mandatory domestic mobile roaming, automatic compensation for those affected and a possible nationalisation of the emergency call service.
The inquiry followed an Optus outage in September 2025 that affected hundreds of Triple Zero calls and was linked to two deaths. Further failures followed, including a nationwide Vodafone outage in June 2026, a Telstra outage in July 2026 in which more than 600 Triple Zero calls failed, and another Optus outage on 11 September this year.
The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee’s report was supported by the Greens, Labor and the Coalition. Recommendations include a minimum performance and reliability standard for all telcos, an independent review of the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s role in regulating Triple Zero, a text-based emergency contact option, legislation to mandate domestic roaming for voice and text, and a statutory authority to take over the Emergency Call Person function, effectively nationalising Triple Zero.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network also welcomed the findings, having pushed for the inquiry following the 2025 Optus outage.
The report also detailed the everyday impact of poor coverage in the bush. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received at least 35 complaints between July 2024 and October 2025 from people unable to call Triple Zero due to mobile network reliability in regional, rural or remote areas, with some forced to walk or drive long distances to find a signal, or to drive straight to hospital instead.
The National Farmers’ Federation told the inquiry the problem went well beyond major outages.
“While this Inquiry focuses on Triple Zero outages, the inability to contact emergency services is a far more frequent reality for individuals in regional, rural, and remote areas, even outside major outage events,” the NFF stated in its submission.
“Poor connectivity resulting in an inability to contact emergency services, or other emergency assistance, is an extremely concerning yet common feature of life for Australian farmers and communities outside metropolitan areas.”
The NFF also raised concerns that mobile coverage maps were unreliable, and noted many rural locations have only one mobile provider, leaving no fallback during outages. The committee heard strong support for Temporary Disaster Roaming, letting mobile users connect to another carrier’s network during declared emergencies, while the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has separately begun an inquiry into regional mobile coverage.
National Farmers’ Federation President Hamish McIntyre said the report confirmed what farmers had long known about Australia’s mobile networks.
“We’re backing every recommendation from the committee. We need to see them implemented immediately,” Mr McIntyre said.
The report comes as the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025 is before the Senate, a timely chance to act, Mr McIntyre said.
“The NFF has been calling for straightforward amendments to the UOMO bill to deliver real change for people on the ground,” Mr McIntyre said.
“Enforceable reliability standards and domestic mobile roaming would make a life-changing difference to people living outside the cities.”
Inquiry chair and Greens communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the report marked the end of telco self-regulation.
“Australian telcos are now on notice, this is the end of the era of self-regulation,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Australians rightfully expect their phone to work no matter where they are in the country. The Federal Government must mandate domestic roaming so that all Australians, especially those in rural and regional areas, are always able to contact Triple Zero, get to work or call their mum.”
The full report and all 11 recommendations are available at aph.gov.au
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