Essential Services
During the COVID 19 pandemic, staying connected has become an essential part of our physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. Whether we are needing prescriptions emailed, online health consultations, school classes or conducting business meetings, our present day lives would be very different without the internet. This is the situation however for many in what has come to be known as the digital divide. Nine weeks on from the June 9th storm and neck deep in lockdown #6, many in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges are experiencing this digital divide, still without NBN service. In comparison to the restoration of electricity which, as an essential service, took 21 days (at worst,) to be restored, the slow restoration of NBN services has confirmed the need for internet services to be considered essential.
Last week the IPCC Sixth Assessment report on climate change announced stark warnings on the affects of global warming on extreme events. Although revisions to the report are still being finalised, there is growing confidence in the probability that our bushfire conditions (hot, dry and windy events) will increase with global warming. Due to a lack of longitudinal data, the IPCC remains reserved in their confidence levels regarding wind speeds associated with thunderstorms. Anecdotally however, I’ve heard many long-time locals comment on the increased frequency of our local wind events. Damage to our above ground NBN network therefore is highly likely again, if not inevitable.
Two weeks ago, Telstra’s CEO Andrew Penn announced that “local and national calls to standard fixed line numbers and calls to standard Australian mobiles on Telstra’s public payphones are now free”. Why? Penn recognised the importance of communications during and following a disaster. Telstra’s decision demonstrates how essential communications are in both the good times and bad. What Penn didn’t mention was that when mobile networks are down, we are also able to communicate when connected to the internet. Following the July 27th storm and without power or mobile coverage (déjà vu), I was still able to make calls by finding somewhere with wifi access. My call was simply to find out how bad the damage had been to the area, but calls made this way could potentially be lifesaving. This example explains why it’s time to go one step further and recognise telecommunications as an essential service with a clear accountability chain.
Under Australia’s National Disaster Reduction Framework, telecommunication is identified as an “essential service we rely on… a failure …could have wide-ranging consequences across communities, businesses, governments and economies” (p5). If telecommunications are recognised as essential to reducing disaster risk, features in the Australian Disaster Preparedness Framework and is considered too expensive to be placed underground, then establishing NBN as an essential service should be considered. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.
Making telecommunications an essential service would create a degree of accountability in an industry once again monopolised by a single NBN wholesaler. In a 2019 report on consumer safeguards, concerns were raised about the lack of “sufficient incentives to improve service levels”. While NBN co. stated in the report that they have introduced strategies to improve consumer experience, this is little comfort to end users in the Dandenong Ranges. Furthermore, with retail internet providers acting as a buffer between the end user and NBN co., unless there is considerable pressure by retailers on NBN, complaints to NBN co. by end users continue to go unanswered.
Nbn service is slowly returning to the Dandenong Ranges and so the question has changed from ‘when will nbn be restored?’ to, ‘when will the next fault occur?’. As the Dandenong Ranges are second only to areas of California in degree of bushfire risk, and considering the recent June 9th and July 27th wind events, establishing telecommunications as an essential service would create a degree of accountability to end users that is currently lacking. As an essential service, incentives like those used in the restoration of power, would be in place to expedite the service restoration. The current ‘best efforts’ of NBN co. have left Dandenong Ranges locals languishing in the digital divide for too long. As we experience our seasonal Spring winds and with the bushfire season fast approaching, changes need to happen, and fast.
What are we doing?
Mums of the Hills Inc is aware of how reliant our community is on online connections. Statistically, 63% of Australian mums check Facebook every day. In the coming weeks, I will participate in a closed round table session on telecommunications issues for the Connecting Victoria program. Along with local MPs, council officers and councillors, I will be advocating for change on this issue for our local community.
What can you do?
The Victorian Government is fast-tracking better mobile coverage and broadband across the state through the $550 million Connecting Victoria program. They are asking Victorians to help identify where mobile and broadband improvements are most needed. Have your say on where mobile and broadband improvements are most needed by heading to engage.vic.gov.au/connecting-victoria before 20 September 2021. In addition, contacting your local Federal MP will also bring further pressure for change.
Even once NBN service has been restored to the Dandenong Ranges Mums of the Hills Inc. will continue to advocate on this subject. The service is as crucial to locals as it is to anyone else and in an area that accepts more than its fair share of environmental risks, this is one risk we are not prepared to compromise on. Making NBN an essential service will result in restoration expectations that NBN co. can be held accountable against. Incentives, like those provided for power outages will further improve the efficiency of services. Please have your say and hopefully as a community we can resolve the current NBN outage and reduce the occurrence of future digital divides.
