Disasters expose Australia’s ageing communications infrastructure

For years, Australia’s public safety communications infrastructure has shown that it’s increasingly unable to meet the demands of modern emergencies.

Our reliance on older technologies, such as Land Mobile Radio (LMR), has highlighted limitations in providing robust, data-driven services that today’s first responders desperately need.

We've seen it first-hand in recent natural disasters, where the failure of traditional communication networks has directly impacted emergency response capabilities.

The shortcomings of fixed legacy infrastructure

Historically, Australia's emergency services relied on radio communications networks, with high availability but limited data transmission capabilities.

LMR systems are often prioritised for their “five nines” reliability (99.999% uptime). They were built to last and served our needs before the evolution of technology like satellite.

LMR systems are primarily voice-based. They fail to support the growing need for real-time video, mapping and data sharing among multiple agencies during crises.

The NSW Public Safety Network (PSN), one of the major communications infrastructures, has been gradually upgraded under the Critical Communications Enhancement Program (CCEP) to provide better coverage and resilience.

However, it still heavily depends on traditional technologies that are being pushed to their limits.

The real evidence from natural disasters

Several recent natural disasters have highlighted the vulnerabilities in Australia's ageing communications infrastructure.

During these crises, network failures have delayed emergency response, hindered coordination among agencies and left communities cut off from vital information.

During the catastrophic 2019-2020 bushfires in New South Wales, traditional communication networks – including LMR and mobile towers – were overwhelmed or destroyed by the fires.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements found that communication failures, due to network damage and capacity overloads, severely hampered response efforts.

Government reviews and research papers

Multiple reviews and inquiries have flagged Australia’s communications infrastructure as a critical risk in emergencies.

The Public Safety Mobile Broadband (PSMB) Strategic Review (2022) underscores the need to transition from outdated systems like LMR to a broadband-based network capable of handling higher data loads.

Research from the Journal of Rural Studies in 2023 highlighted that the focus on making legacy communications infrastructure more resilient is insufficient, and that growing the digital capabilities of emergency services is essential.

The push from within for modernisation

Frontline teams are telling us that they need modern equipment that leverages up-to-date technology. There’s already tension between formal communications systems and processes and what’s needed on the ground during a disaster.

For example, in an interview that was part of the Journal of Rural Studies paper, one emergency services volunteer noted that their local SES truck has “radios that no one knew how to use and comms gear that was really outdated”, so teams rely on their personal mobiles for communications instead.

Hypha enables voice and data beyond networks

At Hypha, it’s our mission to solve this problem in Australia. With our Vehicle-as-a-Node technology, we’re turning emergency services vehicles into wireless access points – powered by Starlink and 4G/5G.

It’s a solution that’s already being rolled out in 5,000 firefighting trucks for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service!

By eliminating dependence on traditional networks – and putting high-speed connections (not just radio) in the hands of frontline teams – we’re enabling personnel to:

Connect to the internet using any Wi-Fi-enabled device, anytime and anywhere
Stay in constant contact and share data for complete situational awareness
Keep safe in disaster situations when communications infrastructure is down