The Australian Telecommunications Alliance chief executive, Luke Coleman, said customers will continue to be able to make phone calls, send text messages, and have limited capacity data services. "You can't expect to have your full usual high-speed data, but you will still have enough data to send a WhatsApp or an iMessage, maybe even to check an emergency service website like Fires Near Me, for example," he said.
For TDR to work, there must be another network available in that area that mobile users can roam onto. This means it will not work in large parts of regional Australia, which are only serviced by one provider.
Regional Independent MP Helen Haines, who has long advocated for such a service, described it as a "game changer". "When disaster knocks in regional communities and pulls out a mobile network, people shouldn't have to wait for their own provider to restore that service before they can reconnect," she said. "This is existential in times of disaster."
TDR is already available in some form, either mandated or agreed to by industry, in several countries including the United States and Japan. In 2023, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that TDR was technically feasible, and in 2024 the Regional Telecommunications Review recommended that it be mandated "at the earliest possible opportunity".
Ms Haines previously tried to have the system legislated with a private members' bill and amendments, but it did not have the support of the government. She said she will keep pushing to ensure telecommunications companies have enough network capacity and power backup to facilitate the service. Mr Coleman said the telcos were best placed to be the custodians of the initiative as they "have full" understanding of their networks.