Australia’s changing climate is causing more frequent extreme weather events including bushfires, cyclones, drought and flooding, the impacts of which we have seen across the nation.
As summer approaches, nbn is urging communities to prepare for a potential a loss of nbn services during an emergency event and test their residential evacuation and business continuity plans.
While the nbn® network is built and designed to be as resilient as possible, it’s important to remember that the majority of outages on the nbn® network during emergencies are caused by power outages. That is why it is important for households and business to prepare in case of disrupted connectivity.
nbn is urging the community to prepare by taking four simple steps:
- Stay mobile: Keep a charged mobile phone and portable mobile battery pack ready to use in a power outage, or if your nbn® connection is disrupted in an emergency event. Consider turning off cellular data on unnecessary apps to save battery.
- Stay updated: Local radio is a good source of information during an emergency, so include a battery powered radio in your emergency communications kit. Also follow emergency services, including your state Fire and Rescue and Police Services, as well as utility companies and nbn (@NBN_Australia) on social media for updates.
- Back up: To make sure you can access important information and essential documents from anywhere, including insurance policies and financial documents, consider creating a digital back up on a USB or in the cloud.
- Be Prepared: Test residential evacuation and business continuity plans, including considering investing in alternative communication and power options to keep your business or community group operating – these need to be tried and tested regularly as part of your Business Continuity Plans.