The ongoing collaborative work between East Gippsland Shire Council and Telstra continued this week, with a visit from CEO Vicki Brady and her team, and representatives from NBNCo.

The thought-provoking update and discussions included an overview of some of the changes that have been made to the delivery of telecommunication services in the region since the 2019-20 fires, including infrastructure upgrades to facilitate 3G to 4G/5G, and the delivery of a further 18 new mobile sites coming online in East Gippsland, thanks in part to our advocacy efforts.

Importantly the discussion also focused on some of recent learnings from the recent storm event where power failures led to extensive telecommunications outages and the information isolation of many communities.

Telstra was able to indicate a strong understanding of the needs of the community and shared some of the work they are trialling to improve services to East Gippslanders.

Mayor Cr Tom Crook thanked Ms Brady and Telstra and NBNCo teams for their ongoing commitment to work with Council to improve outcomes for East Gippsland residents, businesses and visitors and stressed our desire to see:

• Voice and data telecommunications recognised formally as anessential service.
• Emergency roaming mandated for all carriers.
• Mandatory infrastructure reliability standards.
• Investigation into the widespread telecommunicationsinfrastructure failures in the February 2024 storm event with a clearimprovement plan for Gippsland to enhance system resilience.
• Investment to enhance the resilience of infrastructure in the context of climate change.
• Reliable back-up infrastructure for remote areas, improving reliability.

“Telecommunications are essential to how we communicate and do business, but also support one another and our communities in times of natural disasters. Ensuring our mix of telecommunications options are supported by resilient energy infrastructure is critical for East Gippsland,” Cr Crook said.

“It was great to be able to host Vicki and her team and we look forward to continuing to work proactively and productively with Telstra,” Cr Crook said.