Building resilience into the real-time economy

More of Australia’s economy now depends on digital systems operating in real time. A card payment at a cafe, a hospital retrieving a patient record, a logistics company tracking its fleet and someone paying for a cab at three in the morning all depend on those systems working when they are needed.

Behind almost every digital interaction is a telecommunications network moving data between people, businesses, devices and applications. As cloud services, digital payments, AI, automation and online customer experiences become embedded in the way organisations operate, connectivity is increasingly becoming a critical piece of national infrastructure.

Chris Gilmore, senior director, enterprise business strategy at Optus, says that distinction has faded as businesses have become more dependent on digital systems.

“Connectivity is seen as important as power or water. That’s probably the biggest shift we’ve seen in recent years,” Gilmore says.

“We’ve moved beyond a world where connectivity is just a utility. Today, the level of dependency is really determined by the importance of the services sitting on top of it.”

Infrastructure Australia (IA) has put telecommunications alongside transport, energy, water and social infrastructure in its assessment of what the nation needs to support a changing economy. IA’s 2026 Annual Budget Statement calls for “high-performing, resilient and technology-enabled” infrastructure across those sectors.

The shift comes as Australia grapples with weak productivity growth. The Productivity Commission says labour productivity was flat in the June quarter and fell 0.2 per cent over the year, leaving overall productivity barely 1 per cent above its 2015–19 average.

Businesses are also adopting AI rapidly. Australian Bureau of Statistics data released in June shows 12 per cent of businesses used AI in 2024–25, compared with 1 per cent in 2022–23. More than a third of businesses said information and communications technology improved their responsiveness to customer needs.

That puts greater pressure on the infrastructure those businesses rely on.

Businesses large and small now rely on the same underlying infrastructure. A plumber taking bookings on a mobile phone and a florist accepting eftpos payments rely on the same broad communications infrastructure as banks, hospitals and national transport operators.

For larger organisations, the number of systems riding on those networks has multiplied. Transport and logistics companies use connected technologies to track assets and co-ordinate operations. Healthcare providers use networks to access patient information, transmit medical images, support remote monitoring and provide telehealth services.

Customers now contact businesses by phone, web chat, digital channels and AI-powered assistants, placing another layer of business activity on the underlying network.

Asked how much of Australia’s economic activity now relies on telecommunications, Gilmore says: “The short answer is – almost everything.

“Digitisation has helped transform almost every element of the Australian economy, and it all requires telecommunications to work.”