Network Outage Outrage

dotti34 · 10-11-2023, 05:08

Here’s something for you to think about. The other day Optus, which is one of the major telecommunications companies in Australia, went down. In the 12 hours it was down there was chaos and confusion everywhere. Millions of people and thousands of businesses were affected. Government departments, hospitals, organisations, banks, businesses, you name it, they were all in the same boat - lost at sea. It even brought Melbourne’s train network to a halt.

Optus clients and businesses alike were unable to access eftpos and potential customers who rely on using this to pay for goods couldn’t buy anything. The only ones who could buy were the ones who had any of that fast disappearing commodity called cash. It was cash only and businesses lost a lot of money. Communication between people depending on technology via Optus was thrown out the window. Even the emergency system, where people are still supposed to be able to get through to the emergency number of 000 even if the provider is having problems, didn’t work.

It was only down for 12 hours, imagine what it would be like if it was ever down for longer. Two points here - one is that whether we want to or not we do rely so much on technology these days (too much?) and we trust that this technology is working okay, and a completely cashless society could prove to be a disaster.

No, I am not a customer of Optus - and yes, I do still use cash wherever possible.

Margaret Pilkington · 10-11-2023, 10:39

This is a big problem…especially when it comes to finances and banking.
Not being able to access accounts may mean that some customers are slapped with penalties for late payments.
Not only that many vulnerable people will have been left in limbo…being unable to use their lifeline emergency support. For such people 12 hrs is a long time…and dangerous.

Very soon we are going to be converted to Voice Over Internet Protocol….so this would mean for us that there was no access to any kind of services.
It is a big worry and when one telecommunication giant goes down there should be back up by other companies.
I do not know how this could work, but surely it is not beyond human intelligence to do this…or perhaps we should hand this over to AI

Hill Walker · 10-11-2023, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Very soon we are going to be converted to Voice Over Internet Protocol….so this would mean for us that there was no access to any kind of services.
It is a big worry and when one telecommunication giant goes down there should be back up by other companies.
I do not know how this could work, but surely it is not beyond human intelligence to do this…or perhaps we should hand this over to AI

There is one thing you can do to minimise the effect of a company wide network failure. Make sure that the company that provides your landline is different to the company that provides your mobile service. Note that I said minimise and also be aware of which companies have merged but still provide services under their original names making it appear you are useing two companies but in fact are not.

dotti34 · 10-11-2023, 22:35

Hill Walker that is what I have in place. I have a provider for my mobile phone and a different one for broadband, which includes my home phone. I know that no system is foolproof but I think this is the best I can do. Paying for two providers is worth it to me as i feel it gives me some security and safety. Hope I’m right.

Hill Walker · 11-11-2023, 00:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by dotti34

Hill Walker that is what I have in place. I have a provider for my mobile phone and a different one for broadband, which includes my home phone. I know that no system is foolproof but I think this is the best I can do. Paying for two providers is worth it to me as i feel it gives me some security and safety. Hope I’m right.

Thank you. You are right to point out the cost implication, I should have mentioned that.

dotti34 · 11-11-2023, 09:28

Hill Walker, your suggestion about having two providers is an excellent one and I’m sure anyone reading your post would have realised that it does carry an extra cost. However in my opinion it is well worth it. I have had this in place for quite some time now and there have been a couple of occasions when one of the providers has gone down but I still had the other one. I just hope they don’t ever both go down at the same time.

shillelagh · 18-11-2023, 21:57

beginning of october i lost my internet on friday dinner time and it came back on monday teatime .. i also lost my landline at the same time. Turned out bt openreach hadnt flipped a switch at the box and so i lost it all. It drove me nuts not being able to catch up with everything .. i watched tv a lot and read books .. but it made me realise how much i depend on the internet .. and how much time i spend on it ... having a landline is important for me its a back up to having a mobile .. in case i need to speak to family because of an emergency. But also brought back memories ..of the phone book!!! I know you still get one but its not like what we got given back in the dark ages before internet. It had everyones number in it .. and then you had the yellow pages for business .. Now we just get one very thin one and not everyones number is in it. I remember when i was a kid looking up someones number .. now i normally stick it google bring it up .. I couldnt do that .. but another ..how many use the internet for zoom/teams/skype calls especially video calls .. spugster said he missed me .. we spoke on the phone but only for a couple of mins .. not like normal ... a couple of hours of skype call ..

Now its a case everyone depends on the internet .. whether for calls, socialisation, business, banking etc .. when it goes down what do you do ..

Margaret Pilkington · 19-11-2023, 16:08

Jen when the internet goes down you have to resort to old methods..smoke signals, carrier pigeons, bongo drums.
Alas none of these will get you money out of the bank or pay your bills.

RainbowSix · 19-11-2023, 16:19

My MIL's internet went down yesterday, she relies on it a lot for entertainment, shopping etc.

Now that the doctors will not accept phone call requests for medication we have to do that online, the banks have gone so we have to do that online, shops have gone online et all.
Our lives are now based around being able to get online, so yes it is a virtual disaster if the internet is down.

Even if we have a UPS system that restores our power we can still not restore internet.
It's so important, so reliability is the no1 factor when choosing a provider.