[LINK] Increasing fire threat to vulnerable telecommunications networks

[Michael]

It's worth noting the plan (at least in NSW, and I think QLD and ACT) for
emergency services is to move the current 2-way radio network (GRN) to one
that shares
cellular infrastructure over the next few years.
The GRN is currently built and maintained separately by the NSW Telco
Authority and predominantly uses microwave to link towers. The current
network has issues, but a separate infrastructure obviously leaves the
opportunity to use the mobile network and vice versa if one is impacted by
a disaster.

I don't really know much about the backhaul paths NBN uses between towns,
but it wouldn't surprise me if there were many single points of failure in
the NBN and cellphone backhaul network, such that an interruption takes out
all comms downstream. This is unlikely in major centres, but lots of
Australia is small towns or less.

The mitigation appears to be satellite, but this typically requires
transporting satellite gear into location.

Regards,
Michael Skeggs
(pleased not to be in Telco anymore)