Australians should at all times be guaranteed a basic connection to telecommunications networks including triple zero, as a year-long inquiry into the sector recommends a root and branch review of the law.

The committee tasked with investigating the state of Australia’s telecommunications network has issued 11 recommendations, including sweeping updates to existing legislation.

The inquiry was sparked by major outages across networks in recent years, including an Optus triple-zero network failure in September 2025 that was linked to two deaths.

A key recommendation is nationalising the triple-zero network, which would take the system off the hands of Telstra. It would return part of the telco’s operations to the government after Telstra was fully privatised by the Howard government in 2006.

Greens senator and committee chair Sarah Hanson-Young said it was high time the major telcos were held to basic standards to ensure they supplied phone networks that worked when needed.

“It’s crazy that right now Australia’s laws don’t cover reliability of your mobile,” she said on Monday.

”If you’re lucky enough to still have a landline at home, the laws are in place to say that the company providing your landline needs to keep that working.

“But when it comes to mobiles, that law doesn’t exist, and there’s no compensation for customers who fail to be able to use their phone on the fault of the company.”

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance said the industry was already working to strengthen the system, highlighting recent efforts to educate customers and improve the reliability of triple-zero calls.

“Australian telcos have not been waiting for the Senate report on triple-zero outages to improve the reliability of networks and the integrity of triple zero,” alliance chief Luke Coleman said.

Another central recommendation is to introduce a mandate for domestic roaming for calls and texts, which Hanson-Young said was already available to US tourists visiting Australia.

“But Australians are blocked from it. It’s not a service that is provided, and yet it can be,” she said, noting the major providers had no incentive to offer it.

“There needs to be a review of the act to ensure that these things can be done properly and that there aren’t just loopholes that allow the corporations to … kick the problem down the road.”

The report has welcomed the efforts of the department to trial text-based options for communicating with emergency services to improve accessibility.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the telco sector needed to rebuild trust with Australians.

“They must do better to ensure networks do not succumb to preventable failures,” she said.

“We will consider the committee’s recommendations.”

-AAP