The nationwide outage of Australia鈥檚 second-largest telecommunications companies on November 8 should prompt a reconsideration of bringing these essential services under public ownership.
Optus鈥 outage,听still not fully explained,听impacted more than 10 million people, meaning they could not access phone networks, messaging, internet or mobile data for more than 12 hours.
Phone services went down at major hospitals, with the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority urging people to use non-Optus networks to dial Triple Zero.
It meant many were听, there were severe delays on Naarm/Melbourne鈥檚 train network and EFTPOS machines were out of action.
The outage also impacted Workforce Australia, leaving people on welfare unable to complete the required job searches and reporting to receive their payment. Only after the Australian Unemployed Workers鈥 Union听this problem out听听were mutual obligations suspended.
Optus CEO Bayer Rosmarin blamed the outage on a 鈥渢echnical network fault鈥 that 鈥渢riggered a cascading failure that resulted in the shutdown of services鈥.
Rosmarin听听she was 鈥渄eeply sorry鈥, but Optus has only offered 200GB of data as compensation.
The outage comes a year after the听听exposed听the personal data of 10 million people, including emails, dates of birth, full names, mobile numbers and drivers鈥 licence numbers.
The Communication Workers鈥 Union听听the outage 鈥渃omes just after Optus announced the slashing of over 200 jobs in the last two months 鈥 When you repeatedly slash jobs and outsource critical services to contracting companies 鈥 this is what happens鈥.
Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said the outage would be reviewed and a Senate inquiry, led by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has been set up.
Hanson-Young听听the inquiry听鈥渨ill look at what responsibility Optus has to protect the public, not just their profits鈥 and 鈥渓ook into the role of the Commonwealth Government in ensuring Australians have access to essential, reliable telecommunications going forward鈥.
The ABC鈥檚听7.30听听that another outage is likely as Optus and competitor Telstra continue to cut costs to make profits.
Telecommunications academic at RMIT Mark Gregory told the ABC that the Optus network is 鈥渘ot fit for purpose鈥. He said major phone companies have decided that maintaining secure infrastructure is too expensive.
Access to the internet and communications has become an integral part of day-to-day life. Mobile services are an essential service, not a luxury.
How can we ensure that mobile services are properly maintained, accessible and affordable?
Telstra, Australia鈥檚 biggest telecommunications company, was founded by the Commonwealth in 1901 to manage telephone, telegraph and postal services.
It was听听in the 1990s by the Paul Keating-John Howard governments, leading to inefficiencies, job cuts and a falling quality of service.
Telecommunications consultant Paul Budde told the ABC that the current issues in the phone network go back to Telstra鈥檚 privatisation: 鈥淚t's not just another company like a chocolate factory, no, this is integral to our society, to our economy and that was not recognised when Telstra was privatised and that situation has continued until now.鈥
Re-nationalisation of the听telecommunications听network must be on the agenda. With a transparent and democratically elected board, a re-nationalised network would prioritise better service and accessibility over profits; it would mean less signal 鈥渂lackspots鈥 and outages.
It is not a new or radical idea.听Guardian听columnist Owen Jones听听in 2014 that the case for nationalising Britain鈥檚 phone network was 鈥減retty overwhelming鈥. He pointed out that companies build phone towers, but don鈥檛 share them with their competitors.
鈥淭hat means that rather than having a network that reflects people鈥檚 needs, we are constantly zipping past [towers] we are locked out of ... Profit is prioritised over building an effective network that gives all citizens access.鈥
听here to force companies to share towers, but this would be much easier with a government-run network.
Jones also highlighted that phone companies make their profits out of government funded research, including GPS, touch screens, speech recognition and even the internet.
鈥淭hese companies aren鈥檛 the result of some individual entrepreneur in the garage. It was听all state-funded from the start,鈥 economics professor Mariana Mazzucato told The听Guardian.
Federal governments have been slow to adapt to rapidly changing technology, with the infamously inadequate roll-out of the National Broadband Network (NBN) a case in point.
Both major parties were听听in 2020, although Rowland said in July that privatisation was听.
The issues plaguing the country鈥檚 two biggest telecommunications companies are the result of prioritising profits above all else.