Major or Significant Local Outage Policy.

Introduction

This policy outlines our procedures and responsibilities for communicating with our customers and the public during major outages and significant local outages, in compliance with the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024.

We are dedicated to delivering timely, accurate, and easily accessible information to customers, stakeholders, and the public during major outages and significant local outages.

What is a major outage?

A major outage is any unplanned adverse impact to the telecommunications network used to supply a particular type of service to you (e.g. NBN) which:

• results in you being unable to connect to or use your service; and
• affects (or is likely to affect) 100,000 or more customers, or all relevant telco services in a particular state or territory; and
• is expected to be, or is, longer than 60 minutes.

What is a significant local outage?

A significant local outage is any unplanned adverse impact to the telecommunications network used to supply a particular type of service to you (e.g. NBN) which:

• results in you being unable to connect to or use your service; and
• affects (or is likely to affect) 1,000 or more customers in regional Australia, or
• affects 250 or more customers in remote Australia and;
• is expected to be, or is, of a duration, longer than 6 hours in the case of regional Australia, or longer than 3 hours in the case of remote Australia

How we will keep our customers informed during a major outage or significant local outage. Upon identifying or receiving notification from our carrier network service providers of a major outage or significant local outages, we will promptly investigate the impact of the outage on your service and initiate our notification protocols.

Using the information available to us at the time of the major outage or significant local outage, we will communicate the scale and location of the outage, the likely cause, the types of services affected, the estimated timeframes for updates about the outage, and the estimated time to restore your service. We will provide details about how you can contact us via real time or near real time communications if you require additional information or assistance.

We will ensure customers, stakeholders, carriers, and relevant service providers are kept informed until the outage is fully resolved.

Notification methods include:

• Email Notification: Direct communication with affected customers and stakeholders through email notifications where possible.
• SMS Notifications: Text messages sent to affected customers where possible
• Customer Service Channels: Our support lines will be open during our standard operation hours
• Website: Our website will provide incident information relating to the major outage or significant local outage.
• Customer Portal/App: Our Customer portal/App will provide incident information relating to the major outage or significant local outage.
• Social media: Platforms like Facebook will be updated to share real-time updates and engage with the public.

Major outage or significant local outage update notifications

We will provide you with regular updates via email and SMS until the major outage or significant local outage is resolved. Updates will be provided:

• if there is any material change that relates to the outage (as soon as practicable after we become aware of the change); or
• once every six hours for the first 24 hours of the outage; and
• once every 24 hours after that.

Major outage or significant local outage resolution notifications

Using the notification methods listed above we will inform you when a major outage or significant local outage is resolved.

Requesting further assistance or support during a major outage or significant local outage For further assistance or support during a major outage or significant local outage you can contact us through our dedicated phone numbers for any queries or support or refer to our website for the latest available information.

During a major outage or significant local outage, we are unable to offer priority or urgent assistance for real-time or near real- time communications.

Emergencies

If you have a life-threatening emergency, medical emergency, or there is any immediate danger to life, please call 000.

If you require translation or relay assistance, you can also use these Australian government services to assist you in contacting us:

National Relay Service: 1800 555 677 NRS call numbers and links | Access Hub

National Translating & Interpreting Service (TIS): 131450 or online at https://www.tisnational.gov.au/