Network resilience: How we're preparing for this high-risk weather season

Australia goes through a dangerous high-risk weather season every Summer, with floods, bushfires, cyclones and other natural weather events impacting Australians across the country. It’s hard work for our local communities and emergency services to stay on top of. For us at Optus, the high-risk weather season brings a challenge in ensuring Aussies can keep in touch with each other – and we’re ready for it every year.

Our Australia-wide network requires a lot of preparation for when disaster strikes – and when we need to act, we do. We have a massive focus on keeping people connected, from firming up our network to deploying innovative solutions in the field.

In this article, we're talking about what we’re doing this year to provide a reliable network when Australians need it most.

How Optus powers communities during natural disasters

We’re focused on keeping you connected during bushfires, floods and other disasters.

We're always working to keep our services and network online:

• All Optus mobile towers have a battery back-up that keeps customers connected for a period of time during power outages.
• Optus field techs have generators at their disposal to restore power to mobile sites during extended power outages once it is safe to do so.
• Optus has a suite of emergency network tools, such as SatCats, Cell on Wheels and fly away kits that we can deploy to provide mobile coverage in areas where mobile infrastructure is damaged.
• We are comissioning 16 Low Earth Orbit mobile base stations, called LEOCATS, for future use in emergency situations.

When disaster strikes, our technicians are in the field and we’re ready to respond. We work closely with disaster management organisations, power companies, government agencies and emergency services to ensure communities can make essential calls and messages.

There’s also some important things we’ve been doing behind the scenes to prepare for the high-risk weather season. Over FY26:

• We invested in community adaption and resilience initiatives, providing disaster-response equipment to ensure our network connects people when it matters most.
• We continued to participate in the CSIRO’s Telecommunications Resilience Investment Pilot, a collaborative effort intended to enhance resilience strategies.
• We also continue to partner with industry leaders, like Ericsson and FrontierSI, on innovative network breakthroughs, to ensure our first responders are given the most precise real-time location information they can.
  

Stay safe this disaster season

Optus is focused on keeping you connected. Remember to follow the advice of emergency authorities and prepare for the worst. If disaster strikes and you need help, call Triple Zero (000).