1. Purpose and scope

These procedures set out how ConnectTel communicates with end-users and the public during a major outage or a significant local outage, and how we manage requests for urgent assistance during an outage. They are made under section 19 of the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 and are published on our website.

They apply when we receive a notification from a carrier that a major outage or a significant local outage is occurring. Where anything in these procedures is inconsistent with a requirement in Part 2 of the Standard, we comply with the Standard.

These procedures sit alongside our Network Outage Complaints Handling Process, which covers what happens when an individual customer contacts us about an outage.

2. Which outages these procedures cover

These procedures are triggered by a notification from the carrier whose network we use to supply the affected service. ConnectTel supplies services over networks operated by our wholesale suppliers, and those carriers are required to notify us of major and significant local outages.

3. How we notify affected customers

As soon as practicable after receiving a carrier notification, we attempt to notify each customer affected or likely to be affected by the outage, by email. Notifications are issued through our email platform to the contacts recorded against the affected accounts.

We take reasonable steps to use the method we consider most likely to reach the customer, based on what we understand about the outage. Where an outage means email is unlikely to reach an affected customer, we consider an alternative method such as SMS or a direct telephone call to the account contact.

Business and organisation customers

Where we supply services to a business, government entity or other organisation rather than to an individual, we notify the relevant customer or account holder rather than each individual user of the service. Most ConnectTel customers fall into this category.

For this to work, the account contact details we hold must be current. We confirm the outage notification contact for each account at onboarding and review it as part of account maintenance.

4. How we communicate with the public

Where the sole or predominant cause of an outage is a natural disaster, we are not required to notify individual customers. We publish information on our website and include the outage details described in section 5.

5. What we tell you

Every notification and public communication includes as much of the following as is available to us at the time:

• The scale or suspected scale of the outage, including the number of services affected.
• The cause or likely cause of the outage.
• The geographic areas affected or likely to be affected.
• The types of services affected or likely to be affected.
• When we expect to provide the next update.
• When we expect affected services to be restored.

Notifications to customers and public communications about a major or significant local outage also include:

• Contact details for further information or assistance — phone, email or social media.
• A webpage you can view during the outage.
• Contact channels for urgent assistance during the outage, as set out in section 7.

We may withhold information about the cause of an outage where we have reasonable grounds to believe disclosing it could compromise network security or national security.

6. Updates during an outage

We continue to provide updates until the affected services are fully restored. Updates go to the customers we notified and to the public, through the same channels used for the original notification.

Where there has been no material change, the update states that there has been no material change to the outage.

A material change means a change to the scale, geographic area, number or type of services affected, or to the expected restoration time, that is likely to significantly increase or decrease the severity of the outage or the time needed to restore services.

Who provides updates, and when

Responsibility for issuing outage communications sits with the Customer Service Manager during business hours, and with the rostered on call engineer outside those hours. The six hourly update obligation runs continuously from the start of the outage, including overnight and at weekends, and the on call roster covers that period.

7. Urgent assistance during an outage

During a major or significant local outage we make available, as far as is reasonably practicable, one or more contact methods that let you reach a person in real time or near real time if you need urgent assistance.

These numbers connect you to a member of our team who can respond immediately to a request for urgent assistance during an outage. The outage assistance line is published in every outage notification and on our outage status page.

8. When services are restored

As soon as practicable after we consider that all affected services have been restored, we notify the customers we contacted about the outage and communicate the restoration publicly, using the same channels as the original notification.

If you made a network outage complaint, further steps apply under our Network Outage Complaints Handling Process, including a written notification setting out what to do if your service is still not working.

9. Our internal process

On receiving a carrier notification we:

• Alert our customer facing team and the rostered on call engineer as soon as practicable, with details of the outage and how it is or may be affecting customers.
• Identify the customers affected or likely to be affected.
• Issue the initial email notification, publish the outage on our outage status page, and for a major outage post to our LinkedIn page.
• Set the update schedule and assign responsibility for issuing updates, to the Customer Service Manager during business hours or the rostered on call engineer outside them.
• Record the outage, the communications issued and the times they were sent.
• Treat any service outage report we receive during the outage under our Network Outage Complaints Handling Process.

10. Outage registers

Carriers publish public outage registers covering outages occurring or continuing on or after 31 March 2026. As a carriage service provider that is not a carrier, ConnectTel displays a link to the outage register published by the carrier whose network is used to supply the relevant services, in a prominent position on our outage status page.

Registers are published and maintained by the relevant carrier. ConnectTel is not responsible for their content or availability.

11. Our outage status page

Information about current major and significant local outages is published on our outage status page at www.connecttel.com.au. The page is reachable directly from our homepage and remains available during an outage. It carries current outage information, the outage assistance line, and links to the carrier outage registers listed in section 10.

12. Related documents

• Network Outage Complaints Handling Process
• Complaints Handling Process Summary and Complaints Handling Policy
• Payment Assistance Policy