Telstra Identifies Network Problems That Crippled OZ, $50M Fix

Telstra is set to spend $50M fixing the network problems that recently, crippled millions of Australians using their 4G Network.

Chief Operations Officer Kate McKenzie said that the Telco had recently conducted a major review of their mobile review and had identified three key outcomes with a number of recommendations now being implemented.

“The first outcome is that we have confirmed the root causes of those disruptions and implemented a range of steps to significantly reduce the likelihood of these issues happening again,” said Ms McKenzie.

Ms McKenzie said this included increasing redundancy in the nodes, adding more capacity to the core network, introducing new processes and procedures for key network element restarts and improving resilience in Telstra’s international connectivity.

Ms McKenzie said the second outcome related to increased investment in Telstra’s network monitoring and tools.

“In any highly sophisticated world class network like ours there will always be disruptions which is why we use sophisticated tools to help us better detect issues and allow stronger monitoring. We are going to make even further investments in this area to take advantage of some of the most cutting edge technology becoming available,” she said.

“We will be specifically introducing more real time traffic monitoring along with more real time customer impact reporting. This will assist in getting better early warning of any traffic patterns in the network that might be a cause for concern.”

Ms McKenzie said Telstra would be spending around $25 million on installing this monitoring equipment.

The final action relates to improving Telstra’s recovery time for customers to set new global benchmarks.

“This is an incredibly large and sophisticated network and we can never give a guarantee that disruptions won’t occur from time to time. While our focus on the highest levels of reliability will continue to be relentless, we will also focus on being a world leader in the time to recovery when the unexpected happens,” Ms McKenzie said.

“Essentially when a disruption occurs mobile users need to be re-registered or reconnected back onto the network. When large numbers of mobiles are trying to reconnect at the same time there can be a delay in people being able to access the network.

“This is a common challenge for networks around the world – to ensure there is enough capacity in the network so that those reconnections take as little time as possible.

“As a result, we are investing an additional $25 million increasing our capacity to handle a large number of re-registrations occurring simultaneously.

“What this means is that in the event of a disconnection, a much larger number of customers will be able to re-register at the same time so any disruption to services will be of a much shorter duration.”

The review included Telstra’s specialist teams, global experts from Ericsson, Juniper and Cisco, and an independent adviser, highly experienced global telecommunications executive Dave Williams from Tech Mahindra.