No room for error with emergency calling

Regulatory action in NZ and outages in Australia highlight critical risks in the transition from legacy networks.

Heath Gibson · Executive Manager – Industry Intelligence and Insights at NBN Australia19 April 2024Period: April 20244 min read

Last updated 4 May 2026

2,400+↑

Estimated Optus emergency calls failed during November 2023 outage

148→

Telstra 000 calls unable to be transferred during March 2024 outage

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Companies covered:One NZOptusTelstraACMACommerce Commission (NZ)

Abstract

This report analyses recent regulatory actions and network failures regarding emergency calling services in Australia and New Zealand. It examines the Commerce Commission (NZ) legal proceedings against One NZ over '111 Contact Code' breaches and reviews the impact of major outages at Optus and Telstra. The brief highlights the critical importance of public trust and transparent communication as operators prepare for the 2025 3G network shutdowns, which could affect approximately one million handsets configured for emergency calls.

Key Takeaways

The NZ Commerce Commission has initiated High Court action against One NZ for alleged breaches of the 111 Contact Code.
Optus revised its emergency call failure estimate upward to over 2,400 calls following its major November 2023 outage.
Telstra's March 2024 outage resulted in 148 emergency calls failing to transfer due to technical and communication errors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Approximately one million 4G handsets in Australia are currently configured to rely on 3G for emergency calls and will lose this capability once the networks are deactivated. This technical dependency poses a significant public safety risk that may prompt the Australian government to intervene and delay the 2025 switch-off.

Regulators are increasingly pursuing litigation, as seen with the NZ Commerce Commission initiating High Court action against One NZ for 111 Contact Code breaches. Recent network failures have also resulted in massive service lapses, with Optus revising its failed emergency call count to over 2,400 following its November 2023 outage.

Yes, technical errors during a single 90-minute window at Telstra resulted in 148 emergency calls failing to transfer to emergency services. Such incidents demonstrate that even short-duration outages require a transparent 'no excuses' communication strategy to maintain public trust and satisfy regulatory scrutiny.

No room for error with emergency calling

Abstract

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

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