Australia’s major telcos are working on flood support packages. 

Telecommunications can become a matter of life and death in emergency situations such as the flooding crisis in New South Wales.

Telstra says it is offering support packages worth “several million dollars”, as well as $250,000 worth of its ‘Local Flood Grants’, which provide “either cash or technology to the value of up to $10,000 to eligible local groups”.

“Many of our techs and frontline customer service teams live in these communities and are members of these organisations,” Telstra CEO Andy Penn says. 

“We want to do our part to support them and provide practical support for the volunteers who are so often the ones meeting community needs and responding to Australia’s natural disasters.”

Meanwhile, NBN Co says it has put together a support package worth up to $6 million, including $5.8 million for consumers and small businesses on “Traffic Class 4, fixed wireless, Sky Muster, and Sky Muster Plus services”.

It is offering rebates through RSPs, and “will not be limiting the funding to current flood or Force Majeure Event impacted areas”. 

TPG subsidiary Vodafone says it wants to keep “as many customers in flood-affected areas connected as possible”, so it has reportedly “paused collections, suspensions and disconnections in impacted areas to ensure customers do not have to worry about their phone bill while dealing with flood damage and loss”. 

It is also offering 25GB of extra mobile data “on all Vodafone, TPG and iiNet plans to customers in more than 150 postcodes”, redeemable via SMS.

Additionally, Optus says it had donated $250,000 to the Red Cross Flood Appeal, and is offering prepaid and postpaid mobile customers 25GB of additional data, and set up a dedicated customer hotline for customers who need extra support.