Service Standard for Shared Infrastructure Adopted

The Interior Department has adopted a service standard for shared infrastructure. The standard applies to every site and route on the Register of Sites from the date of its entry, whatever its origin and whichever member built it.

The standard sets, for each of the four classes of shared infrastructure, a target for availability, the time within which the Department responds to a reported fault, the time within which service is to be restored and the interval at which plant is inspected. Staffed relay sites and exchange points are to be available for 99.95 per cent of the year and faults at them responded to within one hour. The shared data hall is held to a higher target for power and cooling. Unstaffed relay sites and cabling routes are to be available for 99.9 per cent of the year and faults responded to within four hours.

Faults are classified by severity according to their effect on members. A fault that removes service from more than one member is treated as the most severe and is worked continuously until service is restored. Members are kept informed at fixed intervals while a fault is open and receive a written report when it is closed.

Performance against the standard will be reported to members every quarter. The first report, covering the period from establishment to the end of December 2026, will be published in the Newsroom in January 2027. The standard itself will be reviewed with members after its first year.