The telecommunications regulator has forced Telstra to audit its handling of priority assistance customers, often Australians with life-threatening illnesses, after two people died while their landlines were not working.

Telstra has about 146,000 priority assistance customers registered on its database, which is a status given to those with serious medical conditions to ensure they are put to the front of the queue for a connection and that faults are repaired quickly. Telstra is the only telco to offer this service.

Telstra has commissioned an independent audit of it handling of priority customers after an ACMA investigation. Credit:James Davies

However, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigated in 2017 after the deaths of two people in 2017 who were not given priority status and did not have a working fixed-line service.

Neither customer was given priority status despite telling the telco they had serious health conditions and needed a working phone service. The ACMA found Telstra did not provide information about priority assistance to the customers, even when they asked about the service, in eight instances.