RMIT seeks focus groups for telecom outage study

RMIT and telecom consumer advocacy group ACCAN are calling on residents of South West Victoria to give input into the real-world effects of last year’s critical telecom outage.

The university’s Southern Grampians Centre for Learning and Research is searching for residents willing to participate in focus groups discussing the impact of the disruption on the region.

The goal of the research is to develop a plan for future outages and improve emergency communications services for vulnerable members of the community. ACCAN is helping to fund the project.

A fire at an exchange in Warrnambool in November last year interrupted services for towns across the area.

“The outage was a critical event that affected an entire region, with loss of telephone, internet and systems that relied on the telecommunications network - including vital health monitoring systems - interrupted for up to 20 days,” RMIT Hamilton senior manager Dr Kaye Scholfield said.

The RMIT team is currently analysing the results of a survey of residents from the affected areas. “We’ve received over 400 responses to our survey and the upcoming focus groups will enable us to drill down even further with affected communities, in order to analyse the impact,” Scholfield said.

The researchers will hold focus groups throughout October in the towns of Warrnambool, Heywood, Hamilton, Digby, Camperdown, Cavendish, Heywood, Casterton and Nullawarre.

Results from the study will be presented at events in Warrnambool and Hamilton in early November.

Image courtesy of JD Hancock under CC