Telstra's triple zero failure in 2025, which left hundreds of emergency calls unanswered, is the latest in a series of telecommunications breakdowns that economist John Quiggin attributes to decades of neoliberal policy prioritizing competition over reliability. The outage follows a similar Optus failure in 2025, highlighting systemic vulnerabilities in Australia's mobile network infrastructure.
The roots of the crisis
Quiggin traces the problem to the 1990s policy reforms that created the Telstra-Optus duopoly. Before that, Telecom Australia, a statutory corporation, had delivered steady cost reductions and service expansions. The reforms aimed to introduce competition but resulted in a duopoly that still controls 70% of the mobile network, barely changed since the turn of the century. The National Broadband Network (NBN) adopted a common carrier model, bringing some competition, but the duopolists retain an outsized share.
According to Quiggin, the policy framework was designed to prioritize competition over reliable delivery of essential services. The outcome is long-delayed and patchy networks without the benefits of true competition. A single high-quality network, as could have been built under the old structure, would have provided better coverage and resilience at lower cost.
Proposed solutions
The Albanese government has responded with a universal outdoor mobile obligation to ensure basic SMS and voice services across Australia, and there have been attempts to fix the triple zero system's reliance on for-profit corporations. The grant-based black spot program remains a patchwork approach. Quiggin argues these measures stay within the discredited neoliberal framework of infrastructure competition, which works for major cities but fails outside them.
He calls for a national plan to expand coverage, including automatic roaming between networks so customers can use alternative providers where their own is inadequate. For emergency services, he proposes a national essential services network (ESN) with access to all carriers, focusing on resilience. Essential devices would have credentials allowing automatic connection to any available mobile network, covering voice, SMS, and priority data. Services like triple zero, emergency warnings, police, and hospitals would operate through the ESN, following models in Finland.
Broader context
Quiggin notes that the world is gradually recovering from the mania for privatisation and pseudo-competitive markets. He suggests full public ownership of infrastructure networks, as happening in Italy and proposed in the UK, may be the ultimate solution. For now, limited steps are needed, but essential infrastructure is too important to be left to private monopolies and duopolies.
John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland's School of Economics.
