Network Outage Communications Policy

Purpose

This policy explains how Digital Soul Australia (Digital Soul) communicates with customers during unplanned network outages, consistent with the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024. Our networks serve regional and remote communities where connectivity matters most, and keeping you informed during an outage is part of the service.

What counts as an outage under this policy

• Major outage: an unplanned adverse event affecting 100,000 or more services, or all services in a state or territory, for more than 60 minutes.
• Significant local outage: an unplanned outage affecting 250 or more services in remote Australia for 3 or more hours, or 1,000 or more services in regional Australia for 6 or more hours.
• Local outage: any other unplanned outage affecting a Digital Soul network or site. The Standard's obligations apply to major and significant local outages; as a community-focused provider we aim to communicate about local outages in the same way wherever practical.

As the carrier that owns our networks, Digital Soul determines when a significant local outage has occurred and notifies any providers who supply services over our infrastructure.

How we tell you

• Service status page: current status for each of our networks, including the Dumbleyung network and the Gnowangerup network, is published at digitalsoulaustralia.com.au/status, with incident updates as they happen.
• Direct notification: where an outage affects your service, we notify affected customers by email and, where we hold a mobile number, by SMS.
• Community channels: for outages affecting a whole community we also use local channels, including shire and community pages for the affected network's district.

Our updates identify what is affected, the known or suspected cause, the estimated time to fix where known, how to seek updates or assistance, and anything you can do in the meantime. We write updates in plain language and can provide information in accessible formats on request, including via the National Relay Service and interpreter services.

When we tell you

• Initial notification as soon as practicable after we identify a major or significant local outage.
• Updates at least every 6 hours for the first 24 hours, and at least every 24 hours after that, for the duration of the outage.
• Material changes to the outage (scale, cause or expected restoration) are notified promptly.
• Restoration: we tell you promptly when services are restored.

Planned maintenance

Planned maintenance is different from an unplanned outage: we schedule it to minimise disruption, and notify affected customers in advance. Planned maintenance windows appear on the service status page.

Natural disasters and emergencies

Where an outage is caused by a natural disaster or a declared emergency, restoration and safety take priority and our communications may rely on emergency broadcasters and local authorities alongside the channels above.

Complaints about outages

You can complain about a loss of service during an outage at any time; our Complaints Policy has a dedicated network outage complaints process. A power outage at your premises will also stop your service: see your plan's Critical Information Summary for backup power information.

Seeking updates or assistance

Phone 08 9516 0603 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm AWST) · Email enquiries@digitalsoulaustralia.com.au · Service status