Normal business interruption on Australian farms affects payroll and other banking, connectivity to heat collars, receiving alerts for faults in the milk vat or another key asset, and impact workplace safety.
The Optus outage was caused when preset safety levels were triggered and routers disconnected from the Optus IP Core network.
RMIT University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Professor Mark Gregory said a routine software upgrade was the cause of the outage, which created a cascading failure in the system.
The lack of a disaster recovery plan became self-evident as the day went on.
The Federal Government has committed to an investigation into the outage; but the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s investigation is limited to users’ emergency call access.
Farmers know connectivity challenges in rural Australia are bigger than one carrier.
Optus and Telstra, the two largest national carriers, routinely provide challenging connectivity in rural and regional Australia.
It’s not only the lack of connectivity, it’s also the width of the band of connectivity.
The Commonwealth Government’s Australian Broadband Advisory Council has acknowledged there are localised connectivity gaps on, across and between farms, that hold back online farm-based businesses, force costly work-arounds for farmers, and negatively impact online learning for farm children.
Accessibility issues aren’t prioritised by banks, according to Senator Matt Canavan, Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee chair, in a hearing into bank closures in regional Australia, held on September 20 this year.
Matt noted one farmer discussed how they had to regularly procure a helicopter and fly across their property to a place where they could connect to the internet to do their banking, including paying wages to their employees.
This extreme endeavour was because they couldn’t get an appropriate internet connection in their office.
ABAC’s report states the national carriers’ primary focus is on serving population centres and major transport corridors, which is detrimental to farming communities.
Unfortunately, the same report states there are barriers to entry for new providers to help rural communities build local connectivity.
The Australian Farm Institute has estimated an additional 25 per cent value to agriculture production if the necessary communications infrastructure and broadband coverage was in place across our regions.
Researching and interviewing for this article was challenged by poor or lack of connectivity.
Phil Ryan, from Toothdale in NSW, relies on connectivity for animal health and welfare and often experiences failures in the system.
It isn’t a surprise for the two dairy farmers interviewed for this article, Peter Young at Buffalo, Victoria, and Phil Ryan at Toothdale, NSW.
“When I make a phone call, I need to be careful I don’t move or my phone will drop out,” Phil Ryan said, who farms at Toothdale in the Bega Valley.
“On some parts of the farm, mobile phones don’t work at all.”
For online meetings, he has to turn off the camera to maintain connectivity.
On the day of the Optus outage, Phil was unable to contact one worker whose phone was tied to that national carrier. Phil said it was a similar situation on any given day for Telstra.
“Mobile connectivity is unreliable and very slow,” he said.
To improve it comes at considerable cost. He has regularly invested in external aerials for internet connection.
“I operate two or three internet connections at once, hoping one of them will work,” Phil said.
“I pay premium prices to get internet connections.
“I’ve had to write off investment in what should be current and perfectly usable technology, that has become redundant and unusable pretty quickly after I’ve bought it.”
As NSW Farmers Dairy Committee chair, Phil knows he’s not the only farmer experiencing these issues.
“Talking to other farmers in the district, I know my experience is a common one,” he said.
“It’s a significant issue within NSW Farmers generally and a focus of regular lobbying.
“My local colleagues have had issues with mobile coverage and internet connection for a long time.
“Telstra is currently doing upgrades in the Bega Valley and that is making mobile connectivity unreliable and very slow.”
The upgrades are widespread across the regions because Telstra initiated upgrades in November and early December in preparation for peak tourism season.
Peter Young, in South Gippsland, is another Telstra customer who is frustrated with connectivity. He has been a Telstra customer since he bought his first mobile phone.
In the same week as the Optus outage, a frustrated sales representative had to travel to Peter’s farm to discuss business — because they couldn’t connect on the phone.
“He tried contacting me by phone three times and each time it went straight to message bank,” Peter said.
“I tried the Telstra app to test speed of connection, but it wouldn’t work because it was too slow.
“I contacted Telstra to complain, and I was offered boosters I could purchase at a substantial increase to my bill, but what I wanted was the reception we have been told we should have.
“I have no idea how many calls I’ve missed relating to my farm business, but call centres still find their way through.”
Many times, Peter has lost internet connection altogether. It has a negative impact on his agribusiness, and is of concern to the businesses he deals with.
Telstra urged Peter Young to buy products to boost his connectivity. Australians pay more than five per cent of household income to maintain connectivity compared to an international standard of two per cent.
Telstra’s recent response to Peter, by text, was to offer him a range of service boosters he could buy to improve reception.
“Losing all internet means I’ve missed getting emails on time for critical decision making,” he said.
“I’ve missed text messages from businesses I work with, meaning planned jobs didn’t go ahead because they couldn’t organise a time with me.
“Internet banking and filling in electronic vendor declarations have failed because of low internet.
“I was having trouble speaking to my Marinus Link representative as my phone was dropping out and his voice was cutting in and out. When I said how poor the phone reception is at Buffalo, he said that was a concern for Marinus and they would be looking into it.
“I fear when we can no longer access 3G, things will get a lot worse as my connection now shifts mainly between one bar of 4G to one bar of 3G.”
The Australian Digital Inclusion Survey 2023 identified that substantial numbers of Australians continue to need to pay more than five per cent of household income to maintain quality and reliable connectivity.
International standards indicate households should not pay more than two per cent of their income for internet access.
Low or lack of connectivity also has a significant impact on Phil’s farm business, particularly his decision making around animal health and welfare.
“I’m reliant on my internet connection for operating the heat detection collars on my cows,” he said.
“That’s my main limitation on a daily basis for technology that needs mobile or internet connection.”
But there’s also simple things that become time wasters.
“I can’t contact suppliers, and lack of connectivity impacts how I manage biosecurity risks,” Phil said.
“I definitely think there are issues with focusing on high population areas at the expense of rural areas.
“Our network coverage is becoming an increasingly necessary service for operating any sort of business. Farms are reliant on connectivity.
“I’ve spent hours and hours of my time wasted arguing about connectivity with mobile and internet providers.
“The failures of internet networks only become apparent to politicians when bushfires and other disasters occur or when tourists are on holiday and their phones don’t work.”
Telstra upgrades in prime tourism locations have created days without connectivity for local residents.
