Seasonal factors and network fault performance

1
Seasonal factors and network fault performance

• In general, fault levels and fault rates vary in
  an annual seasonal way, namely
• Up during the "wet seasons" (December and March
  quarters) and
• Down during the "dry seasons" (June and September
  quarters).
• However, if there is a large number of natural
  disasters in a particular region at a particular
  time period, the fault numbers and fault rates
  are expected to be higher than normal.
• The ACA has also acknowledged seasonal effects on
  fault levels in its Telecommunications
  Performance Report, 1997-98. The report states
• It was noted that the data for country areas
  shows seasonal effects, that is, the March
  quarter is down 4.6 per cent relative to other
  quarters. Causal reasons for this may be the
  fact that the three months to March, in country
  areas of Australia, are more likely to be subject
  to weather extremes. A similar pattern of
  decline is also apparent in the proportion of
  faults cleared within two working days of
  notification. Source p. 48 ACA
  Telecommunications Report 1997-98.
• Telstra understands the ACA formed its conclusion
  based on a detailed analysis of seven years of
  data undertaken by the Communications Research
  Unit in 1998. Further details about this are
  available from the ACA.

The ACA has acknowledged seasonality and
variability of faults performance
2
Seasonal factors and network fault performance

• A recent example of the impact of seasonal
  factors is the large number of natural disasters
  which took place between January 2001 and
  February 2002 across Australia, costing the
  nation over 1.5 billion. The disasters included
  bushfires, floods, storms, etc. with the majority
  of disasters occurring in the State of NSW.
• The most damaging disaster was a flood in
  Northern NSW in March 2001. Source "Natural
  Disasters Cost 1.5 Billion", The Age, 30 May
  2002.
• The magnitude of wet weather influence on fault
  rates can range from nothing to very significant,
  depending on the level of the damaging force and
  the duration of the wet weather in the areas
  concerned (eg. Light rains versus floods,
  downpours, storms, cyclones etc)
• The impact of seasonal factors on the network is
  also evidenced by the queues to report faults
  with Telstras service difficulties call centre.

There were significant extreme weather conditions
in 2001 and 2002
3
Seasonal factors and network fault performance

• As shown in the chart below, over the last ten
  years there are a significantly lower number of
  calls answered within 15 seconds in each March
  quarter compared to each September quarter.

Access to service difficulties queue
Source Telstra Corporation Quality of Service
Report June 2002 quarter
4
CSG Fault Repair - NSW/ACT Rural
Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 8 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 13 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 9726 Initial Service Jobs (SJ)
in declared areas 31,780
5
CSG Fault Repair - NT Rural
Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 1 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 1 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 100 Initial Service Jobs (SJ)
in declared areas 10
6
CSG Fault Repair - Qld Rural
Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 0 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 6 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 3369
7
CSG Fault Repair - SA Rural

Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 0 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0
8
CSG Fault Repair - Tas Rural

Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 0 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0
9
CSG Fault Repair - Vic Rural
Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 0 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 2 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 0 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 901
10
CSG Fault Repair - WA Rural
Important Notes Only CSG Exemptions in Regional
Service Division shown FY2000/01 FY2001/02 No.
of declared CSG Exemptions 1 No. of declared
CSG Exemptions 1 Initial Service Jobs (SJ) in
declared areas 411 Initial Service Jobs (SJ)
in declared areas 526