Mobile roaming in disasters

Have you lost mobile coverage during a fire, flood or storm? What did you need to do that you could not?

Roaming works only on phones that support VoLTE roaming. Do you know whether your phone supports it, and was that easy to find out?

Roaming needs another network to be working in the area, so it cannot help where only one provider has towers. How common is single-network coverage where you live or travel?

The telco industry offers the voluntary scheme at no extra cost; Helen Haines and the 2024 regional review favour mandatory obligations. Should disaster roaming and backup power be required by law?

Power failures caused nearly all telecommunications outages during Black Summer, according to the ABC. Who should pay for backup power at mobile towers: telcos, governments or customers?

Under the scheme, roaming is limited to three disaster areas at once and up to 15 towers in each. Are those limits reasonable for a large fire or flood season?

Shoalhaven City Council has set up solar-powered community hubs with satellite phones for emergencies. Does your area have something similar, and would you know where to go?

For emergency volunteers and local officials: what communication backups do you rely on when mobile networks fail?

Roaming is not available in major cities under the current arrangement. Should it be, given storms and outages also hit urban areas?

What would you want telcos to tell customers when roaming is switched on in a disaster, and how should they tell people whose own network is down?

Is there an official explanation of when and how roaming is activated in your area? Share the link and what it says.