Triple Zero Fallout is The Tip of The Iceberg

20 years in the game starting when we had our girls in the exchanges to when we went digital and fibre optics took the stage, and what a hell of ride it was.

With that perspective of what we had to what have now and how have arrived at a Senate Hearings on surprise surprise lack of customer response to 000 ..

Look to be quite BLUNT you get the communication network you PAY FOR today.

All the start up companies Optus, Vodaphone, you pick it ALL work off the Telstra network in one form or another. They Lease space, that your privatisation model you all think is competitive and you think you are saving a buck until mayhem shit hits the fan.

When Optus first started up I was in a supervisory role in the exchange area their exchange was parachuted in.

Do you think for one minute in that era where the nation had one carrier was going to hand over its best network let alone experienced staff to an opposition company?

Optus went cheap from day one and still rides on old Telstra network as we speak with minimum upgrades to keep the shareholders at bay.

Sack and outsource and paper up the cracks when it goes down, and yes Telstra went down the shareholder way and are just as guilty but they still have the network I was accountable to build and maintain until the decided we old employees who lived and breathed PMG, Telecom, Telstra had far too much knowledge about it, and had to go and they put the young, in some cases totally ignorant people in charge as then they could manipulate them into the new way and they went along like good little children they were.

Our Charter was “ Every person in Australia was Entitled to a phone Service regardless to where they lived”. I sign on with that pledge after I was sworn in by my Senior Lines Officer to be a Commonwealth Employee at Camp Hill Line Depot.

The network was classified as an Essential Service and was given that priority by respective services such as todays entities.

Faults, cut cables, weather damage, any disruption was accountable to the OIC in charge of that area. Fully accountable and response times were critical and repair times were taken and used as evidence of your ability to manage your area.

It was personal, not just a job and the further you went outside the city limits the more personal it got.

Life long employees. families for generations all part of a family servicing their communities, on call day and night 24/7.

One instance was a fault come in. Christmas Eave, 50 + customers out of one country exchange come in after hours, and the boss and his wife hit the lineyard, grabbed a truck and cable and that community had phone for Christmas Day.

No, the hierarchy were never aware, and that was the culture, we can do anything but the impossible may take a little longer..

It was the true Australian way in the bush, never appreciated then and less today.

So back to 2025, if you want a real safe, reliable, hands on local orientated communication, Return Communications to a Essential Service and if they the contractors or lease holders can’t deliver sack them and bring our people back to provide a service all Australians deserve.

The Grump

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