Latest / The Front / Just text Elon: Telstra’s Triple-0 ‘solution’

Transcript

Just text Elon: Telstra’s Triple-0 ‘solution’ · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, July twenty four, twenty twenty six. Higher taxes
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: on fossil fuels and wealth and maybe a tougher stance
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: on Hermas. That's the prescription from Labour's party faithful as
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: members and politicians gathering Adelaide for the ALP's annual conference.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We've got live coverage of all the drama at The
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. Next time your telco melts down,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: don't worry. Telstra has a backup plan and it involves
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network. In the aftermath of yet
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: another embarrassing Telstra outage, we've brought in Technology editor Jared
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Lynch to analyze their so called solution and to explain
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: exactly how a tech writer makes sure he never goes
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: off the air. Jared Lynch is The Australian's Technology editor,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and part of his job is digging through the en
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: trails whenever we have one of the big telco outages
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: that seem to be more and more frequent these days.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The scale of the tragedy linked to Thursday's Optus outage
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: is becoming clearer tonight.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Another network letch that disrupted multiple Triple zero calls.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of people unable to make calls or texts.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It's also impacting some emergency jared in the wake of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Telstra's big outage which crippled some public transport networks, left
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: shops and businesses without connectivity, having to do manual payments,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and left some people unable to call Triple Oh, you've
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: been looking at exactly what was going on at the time,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and you've did and covered an intriguing link between Telstra
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and Elon Musk's stylink. What is that connection and what
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: does it mean?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's quite prizing.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Telstra CEO Vicky Brady revealed a bizarre workaround for people
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: who if they found their phones were in the dark
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: during the outage, that they still could have called Triple
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: zero and not even rely on any other telco in
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Australia but Elon Musk. But there was a catch, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the catch was that they could only text for help,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: not Triple zero, but a family member or a friend
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: thanks to satellite messaging, a deal that Telstra did with
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk. Not that long ago to say help, I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: need Triple zero? Can you call them for me? And
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: then if they were lucky and a family member or
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: a friend read the text message, they go, oh they
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: need help, no worries called Triple.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Zero, Oh hang on, where are you? Are you here?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And then they could get an ambulance, policeman, policewoman, firefighter,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: whatever it may be.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: To render assistance.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So that was a pretty bizarre workaround, but it's one
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: that Vicky Brady told senators could work.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: And brought satellite to mobile texting to our customers. Now
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: you can't text Triple zero, but at least you can
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: text someone in the event you're outside mobile coverage.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: The last one's a bit weird for me on your session.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And so does that mean that the person receiving the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: text message would have to be a non Telstra customer
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: if they were going to be the one to call
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: TRIPLEO for you.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Well, yes, that's the catch.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Their phone would have to work so they could then
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: call Triple zero and then be put in touch with
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: emergency services. It's a very very sloppy work around, but
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: it was one that they said could have work.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Something Vicky Brady conceded and I was interested in your story.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: The way she framed it was that there were mobile
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: dead zones. You've called them mobile dead zones, she calls them.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Some customers experiencing changes in terms of how their experience
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: was where they were. So that's a dead zone, right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Sounds a bit like Yoda, doesn't it.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: You know, or master your problems before your problems become
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: your master?
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: What that?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's a dead zone, but it's one of the
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: joys that we have when we see CEOs who you
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: know and one of Australia's biggest telca you think they'd
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: be able to communicate in plain English.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: But that's what she said.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about what the difference is between all
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: these types of signals that Telstra's providing at the moment.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: There used to be three G. That's what we all
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: had back in the day. Now most of us are
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: on five G. What's going on there and why does
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: that make a difference in terms of whether you were
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: able to get connections that day?
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: So five G it works on a higher frequency, and
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: that higher frequency is fantastic for higher data speeds. You
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: can do a lot more on five G than what
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you couldn't on free G. That's why it was upgraded. Unfortunately,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: those higher frequencies don't travel as far as the lower
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: frequencies that free G operated on. And those lower frequencies,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: it wasn't only the distance that they could travel. They
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: could also punch through walls for one of a better
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: word more clearly. So if you were there in Holt Street,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Claire and you're on a telstraphone or an Optus free
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: G phone, there probably weren't as many mobile dead spots
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: in the building because it was better at penetrating walls.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And that's been a common complaint about people in the cities,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: people in the country.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: They have really had.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: It rough because they rely on mobile towers to travel
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: vast distances to get reception. And that's what Vicky Brady
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: has been questioned about during the outage, that since the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: free G's shutdown there have been people who once had
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: reception now don't have any reception at all. How do
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: you look after those people in a time of crisis
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: when they need an emergency help, when they need to
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: call Triple zero. And that's why the whole free G
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: shutdown was pulled back into this outage.
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: Around fifty nine thousand devices will no longer have service
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: after this weekend and less devices are updated.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: It was shutting down the three gen network essential because
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: farmers say that they once had coverage in remote paddocks
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: for example, with three G that now just are simply
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: not covered under the five G network.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Geez, I remember growing up and farmers farm boy having
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: CB radio if they needed help.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: And of course then mobile connectivity got really good, Like
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: we went from two G to three G, things were
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: working well, and then we went to four G five G.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: It's a real catch twenty two because we're demanding to
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: do more online and have those faster data speeds, and
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: in order to deliver that you need to have spectrum
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: operating at those high frequencies five G.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: But for those people who.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: They don't want a bar of data, they just want
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: to call, they just want to text, then three G
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: was the superior technology.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Should it have been shut down?
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Well, if Australia wants to decentralize itself and rely on
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the new digital internet economy and connectivity, then of course
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it needs to be shut chain because free G just
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: can't deliver those speeds that modern economy demands. But that's
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: still a very very bitter pill to swallow for those
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: people who once had reception and now don't.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Everyone I know who lives in the country or spends
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: time in the country has now got a Starlink connection, Jared.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: This is Elon masks satellite network which provides incredible high
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: speed Internet in the most remote of places. It's quite
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: remarkable to see that the speed test go off the charts.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: When you turn on a Starlink connection. You can get
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: them for your caravan or your fishing boat, or your
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: house or your farm. It's the same technology used by
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: soldiers in the field in Ukraine, for example, to connect and.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: Starling today as the backbone of the Ukrainian military communications.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And Australians have absolutely fallen in love with it. Is
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: there a risk for Australia in our increasing kind of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: uptake of Starlink that we become reliant that Elon must
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: become someone who is an embedded part of our telecommunications network.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: And if he is, is that a bad thing.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Elon must span the eye and the sky that could
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: just switch it off whenever he feels like it, which
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: is what he've threatened to do in Ukraine. You mentioned
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: that's what soldiers on the ground use they're starlink.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Of course there is.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you're putting all your eggs in one basket,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: it's starlink. As fantastic as it is, it's still a
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: foreign own talco. And we've seen Donald Trump with his
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: trade wars, how things can change on a whim.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: Reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world.
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: Reciprocal That means they do it to us and we
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: do it to them.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Very simple.
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: Can't get any simpler, and.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: It's not a wise choice to sort of put all
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: our reliance in one operator. We need to have diversification
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: here in our tailcos, and that diversification is in coming months,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: we're going to see Amazon enter the race with their
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: stalin competitor, Amazon Leo. They've partnered with the NBN to
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: deliver a Leo satellite broadband service, and that's when we're
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: really going to see this satellite technology enter the mainstream
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: because what we know about Amazon is it's almost like
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: a race to the bottom in terms of cost, so
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: we're going to see it really intensify. And then we've
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: got homegrown companies like Gilmore Space which are trying to
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: be ord Australia's sovereign capability in this regard. Unfortunately, Gilmore
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: hasn't been able to successfully launch a rocket into orbit.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: They've maybe got a few feet off the ground and
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: then to crash back down to Earth.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: But that just shows you the.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Challenge is involved in this new satellite connectivity.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: There are reports or Telstra's admitted that it was basically
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: a spare part that failed that was worth about thirty
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. How can that possibly have caused such a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: catastrophic outage?
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: And it's a spare part that they were repeatedly warned
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: about but ignored. So it wasn't like this was a
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: head gasket in your old land Rover that suddenly went
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: bang and you thought, oh, that's unfortunate. This was something
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: of vulnerability that they knew could cause an issue.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Here's Telstra CEO Vicki Brady and one of their technology executives,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Jared Tracy, being questioned by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: What about if you had replaced the piece of equipment
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: well spencer thirty thousand bucks, that would the problem have happened?
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: If you had spent the thirty thousand.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Bucks, that will be part of the investigation or chair,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: because well, last I'm insta tracy.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: If this was a new.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Server, would this have occurred?
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: That'll have to be part of the investigation.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: What do you think would happen.
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: The a newer piece of hardware operating in the same
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: design that we intended to the issue wouldn't have happened,
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: thank you, And.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: To many Australians that's just absolutely shocking because we accept
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: outages happen. I mean, we're pretty understanding. We're not sort
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: of like this entitled dogmatic sectional population. We're pretty relaxed.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: As Pauline Hansen said, we've become too relaxed, saying she'll
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: be right mate all the time. But where we don't
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: become relaxed is when we find out that a part
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: which costs thirty thousand dollars that Telstra was warned as
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: late as this year needed a software upgrade but said no, no, no,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: we're not using the part in that way, so we
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: won't push through the upgrade. And then they were told
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: that the part which was fifteen years old. Mind dude,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: you know, starting to creak a little bit in terms
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: of technological infrastructure here, that if they just replaced it
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: put the thirty thousand dollars.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, Telstra is a big company.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: They could have probably put someone could have probably put
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: thirty grand on a b card like a corporate credit card,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: and just bought the thing and plugged it in bang Beego.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: And the outage would never happen.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is not technological complexity off mobile networks
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: that failed here because they are complex beeces. This is
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: more a result in a failure off corporate process. Too
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: many people's and years ago, the former a Triple C
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: chair Alan Fowls called for Telstra to be broken up.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe Telstra has become too big to notice the small stuff,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: and that conversation should be revisited.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Jared.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Whenever one of these network outages happen, they always seem
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to be very early in the morning, and there's always
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a frantic call from the news desk to Jared to
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: get onto it and find out exactly.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: What's going on.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: How do you manage this? Have you got a telstraphone
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and an optor's phone and various connections at home to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: make sure you never go down?
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Not quite.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: It feels like in one of those old Cold War
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: films we've got red Phone, dreen Phone. Not quite, but
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: there are steps you can take to protect yourself against outages.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: For example, yes, I do have a Telstra mobile phone.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: My broadband home broadband is with Telstra, so early in
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the morning when the news desk freaks out there's been
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: and outs, Jared get on top of it. I actually
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: don't know that my mobile phone is out of faction
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: because my home broadband has taken over with another provider
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: and I've still got Wi Fi calling. I can still
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: get texts from most people. But that was just one
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: way that you can sort of shield yourself against some outages.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Another way is to actually explore the world of e sims. Now,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: most phones can put one, two, three, four e sims
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: in there, not a physical SIM, and some of these
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: e SIM providers can you can buy plans for as
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: little as one hundred dollars a year, so it can
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: just be sitting in your phone, and as soon as
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: an outage happens, whether it be with your provider of
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: choice Telstra, Vota, Phone, Optus or any of those other
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: smaller ones that use the Big three, it can switch
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: over to one of those e sims. So the key
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: is to just have these little strategies similar to like
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: carrying a ten dollar note in the back of your
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: pocket when you go for a run.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: So if there is.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Running and you want to get a coffee and there's
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: an outing like that, you've got that, you know, ten
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: bob note shoved up somewhere that you can pull out
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and still get your cup of coffee.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, women's This could get me onto a whole thing
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: about women's running gear doesn't have pockets. It's very annoyed.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: You know where to put your phone and your key
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and you and you know, I do carry the fifty dolls,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: but it's not for a coffee. It's in case I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: want to get a cab home.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: You need to have a little backpack. Well, Jared, ire.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Sure it won't be the last time we talk about
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a network outage. I hope you have connectivity next time
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: we're trying to you're trying to cover one, So thank
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you very much. Jared Lynch is The Australian's Technology editor.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: You can check out his work anytime at the Australian
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au