Optus completes a world-first trial of network automation technology to restore mobile coverage near real time during outages

• World-first near real-time cell coverage compensation on a live 4G and 5G network in a multi-vendor environment, setting a new industry benchmark for responsiveness in live mobile networks
• Automatic detection and coverage recovery for both unplanned and planned outages, significantly reducing customer impact and improving overall network resilience
• Trial successfully restored up to 47% of lost coverage footprint and up to 50% of affected mobile connections during planned outages

Optus has successfully completed a world-first live network trial of near real-time automatic Cell Coverage Compensation technology that can detect outages and restore mobile coverage across a live 4G and 5G multi-vendor network.

This innovation represents another step in Optus' ongoing investment in network resilience and reliability. By combining advanced automation with near real-time outage detection, the solution helps minimise service disruption during events such as extreme weather, power failures and planned maintenance activities, ensuring customers remain connected when it matters most.

The trial, conducted on Optus' live network in Sydney and Brisbane, demonstrated the ability to rapidly detect outages and automatically restore up to 47% of lost coverage footprint and up to 50% of affected mobile connections during planned site outages.

This new capability, powered by Nokia's MantaRay SON Solution, uses advanced engineering capabilities and algorithms to automatically adjust surrounding network infrastructure to compensate the mobile coverage when a cell site goes offline, helping maintain connectivity and improving network resilience for customers.

Developed locally by Optus and Nokia, the solution utilises real-time network triggering events, such as cell status changes, environmental alarms, and OSS link supervision alarms. This enables outages to be detected and addressed within minutes — and in some cases seconds — significantly faster than traditional KPI-based monitoring methods that often take 15 minutes or longer to detect network disruptions.

Sri Amirthalingam, Optus Chief Technology Officer, said, "Network resilience is fundamental to earning and maintaining our customers' trust. Whether an outage is caused by severe weather, a power disruption or essential network upgrades, our focus is always on reducing the impact on customers and restoring services as quickly as possible.

“This world-first trial demonstrates how advanced automation can help us do exactly that. By automatically detecting outages and adjusting surrounding network infrastructure in near real time, we can maintain greater coverage, reduce disruption and improve the overall customer experience. It's a significant innovation and an important step in our ongoing commitment to building a more resilient and reliable network for Australians."

Adrian Heley, Head of Oceania, Global Sales and Customer Operations at Nokia, said, “Working closely with Optus, we’ve been able to take this capability from concept to live network reality. Together, we’ve shown how automation can detect and respond to outages in near real time, helping reduce disruption and maintain service continuity for customers. This is a powerful example of how collaboration within a strategic partnership and advanced technology can deliver more resilient networks when it matters most.”

How Automatic Cell Coverage Compensation Works

• Automatically detects cell outages within a few seconds to 3 minutes based on real-time trigger mechanisms developed locally by Optus and Nokia
• Evaluates coverage impact of the affected cell during outage
• Identifies neighbouring cells and performs optimisation actions (e.g. remote electrical tilt (RET) adjustments)
• Continuously monitors KPIs to ensure best network performance in the outage and its surrounding areas
• Automatically reverts changes once the outage is resolved.

Customer and Network Benefits

• Improved customer experience: Rapid mitigation reduces dropped connections and maintains more consistent coverage and service experience during outages.
• Enhanced network resilience: Automated detection and compensation minimise service disruption by dynamically adjusting surrounding cells to maintain coverage and capacity.
• Operational efficiency: Automation reduces manual intervention, enabling faster recovery and freeing operational resources.

Significance of Near Real-Time Implementation, Multi-Vendor and Multi-Technology

• Near real-time automatic action: The ability to detect and compensate for outages within minutes sets a new industry benchmark for responsiveness in live mobile networks.
• Multi-vendor and multi-technology capability: The solution demonstrates seamless optimisation across multi-vendor network equipment in today’s Optus 4G and 5G network, showcasing advanced interoperability for large scale network rollout.

The trial was completed in June 2026. Following its success, Optus is now planning a phased rollout of the technology over the next 6 to 12 months. Once deployed, the capability will automatically respond to both planned and unplanned outages across the Optus mobile network, helping improve service continuity, strengthen network resilience, and reduce the impact of outages on customers nationwide.

ENDS

Media contact:
Optus Corporate Affairs
(02) 9037 8179
media@optus.com.au