Increasing fire threat to vulnerable telecommunications networks

Australia's unprecedented bushfire crisis has exposed the vulnerability of phone and internet networks, prompting Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to warn telecommunications giants to prepare for increasingly severe disasters.

Telstra is working to get telecommunications back up
 and running in fire-ravaged communities in Victoria.

As dozens of mobile towers went dark during this summer's catastrophic bushfires, people have been cut off from contact with emergency services and in some cases unable to pay for essential supplies. Telcos have scrambled to bolster their networks and respond to the outages, rolling out satellite trucks, portable reception towers and restoring disabled mobile base stations.

Read the story from The Age by Fergus Hunter and Zoe Samios - “Increasing fire threat to vulnerable telecommunications networks.”