Australian telcos have called on the federal government to maintain a public list of mobile phones that handset makers claim are able to make emergency calls reliably.
The register, which would be available publicly to consumers, is a key recommendation in the Australian Telecommunications Alliance’s (ATA) submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the fatal triple zero outage that took place on Optus mobile network last September.
As iTnews reported earlier this month, telcos see such an urgent need for the register that, having had their pleas to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) continuously rejected, they’ve pushed on with a plans to build their own.
However, the ATA has now renewed its call for the government to take on the cost and responsibility of maintaining the list.
The current device compliance regime, the Telecommunications Labelling Notice, is largely a voluntary record-keeping exercise.
It requires device makers to make compliance declarations to the regulator, keep a record of compliant devices and apply a compliance label to their products.
But the ATA says it needs to go further.
“[Mobile network operators] believe that the Telecommunications Labelling Notice regime could be improved by a requirement for mobile device suppliers to populate a public register of compliant (tested) devices sold in Australia,” the ATA said.
“This public register would establish a ‘single authoritative source’ that can be relied on by consumers, industry, and regulators to determine the compliance (and safety) of mobile devices in Australia.”
The ATA told the committee that without the register, mobile network operators would struggle to meet their obligations to block devices under the Emergency Call Service Determination 2019.
ATA chief executive Luke Coleman told iTnews earlier in the month that the alliance had updated the terms of its Device End-to-End Service Testing (DETEST) working group to include inter-carrier arrangements for sharing information about handsets.
The carriers’ plan was to develop a shared database to track mobile devices with that can’t reliably provide emergency calling services for individuals in distress to help them meet their regulatory obligations.
“This technical information sharing will be undertaken with a view to developing an industry database for device issues and capabilities in relation to triple zero, to assist mobile network operators with their management of device capabilities,” Coleman said.
However, it’s understood that the carrier’s version of the register will not be made available to the public.
In its submission, the ATA is now pleading to the federal government to make ACMA’s existing register of compliant devices created through the device labelling regime public.
Part of the problem, the ATA said, is the sheer number of devices that mobile network operators are potentially required to test under current regulations.
More recently, the onus for testing devices has started falling at the feet of mobile network operators under ACMA’s new rules in response to Bean Review of the November 2023 Optus outage.
The rules specify the testing facilities that mobile network operators are permitted to use to benchmark mobile devices.
The ATA said that it doesn’t have the reach to cover all mobile devices entering the Australian market and some devices with emergency calling problems are likely to fall through the cracks.
The ACMA has also previously told iTnews that the current regime requires handset makers to test their products against the regulator’s technical standards, complete a declaration of conformity, keep compliance records and apply a label to their product indicating its compliance.
However, the ATA is now telling the triple zero inquiry committee that the voluntary arrangement could be allowing many handsets with triple zero calling problems to slip between the cracks and onto mobile networks
“The [arrangement] will only test a small fraction of devices in market (10-20 per year out of well over 40,000 handset makes/models in Australia),” the ATA said.
“While mobile network operator device testing will complement these efforts, there will still be a significant number of devices in market that are not captured by these testing arrangements and will be impossible to capture by testing arrangements due to the nature of the devices and how they are brought into market, e.g. grey market imports etc.”
The ATA suggested that its proposed public register of compliant devices could be administered by the ACMA “or another appropriate government agency” and noted that the regulator’s responsibility for ensuring compliance under the labelling regime.
iTnews contacted ACMA for comment on the carriers’ claims that it had rejected the industry’s recommendation to establish the register earlier this month.
A spokesperson for ACMA declined to comment beyond a short statement saying that discussions with industry about a register of devices were “ongoing”.
The federal government might have other ideas.
As reported by iTnews yesterday the Department of Communications’ newly-operationalised Triple Zero Custodian might force telcos to enter new information sharing schemes to ensure emergency call services operate reliably and oblige them to be more transparent with information during disruptions.
The ATA’s plea to the federal government arrives during a time when mobile operators are struggling to regain the confidence of consumers and Canberra in the wake of a series of triple zero service outages that have been linked to the deaths of at least four individuals.
Public outrage over the deaths and the carriers’ continuing poor record for providing reliable triple zero services, prompted the parliamentary inquiry into the September Optus outage.
Part of the inquiry will deal with mobile handset “camp on” arrangements which, in simple terms, refer to the way that mobile handsets automatically switch from mobile networks that aren’t working to ones that are during emergencies.
The issue of mobile handset camp on performance has gradually started to receive greater scrutiny as the triple zero crisis has unfolded in the public eye.
Telstra and Optus also recently announced that they would block about 71 older Samsung handsets with firmware configurations that make them exclusively attempt to route triple zero calls to the shuttered Vodafone 3G network.
TPG Telecom reported just over a week ago that a customer using one of the handset models on its Lebara network died after failing to reach emergency services.
It was the first triple zero call-related fatality in which a carrier publicly name-checked the Samsung brand, linking the incident to the use of one of the handsets on the list of devices known to have the firmware configuration problem.
Australian mobile carriers have previously warned consumers and regulators about the problem. Around 60 of the handsets can be fixed with an upgrade, but the remaining 11 need to be replaced, according to carriers.
Only a few weeks before the TPG Telecom customer died, when Telstra and Optus announced its plan to block the handsets, the two carriers warned users of the devices that they would only have 28 days to upgrade the software in them if it was possible. Otherwise, they said, the mobiles would be blocked from all networks.
ACMA has also tightened rules for testing the camp on performance of mobile handsets. It created a new industry code that required carriers to subject handsets to special tests designed to see how they perform when they’re required to switch networks to place emergency calls.
Telstra’s testing showed that Samsung devices were not connecting to TPG Telecom’s Vodafone-branded 4G network correctly when its own and Optus’ networks were not available.
The parliamentary inquiry is expected to hold another hearing next month.