OPTUS TRIPLE-0 OUTAGE INVESTIGATION: Aussie Telco Faces ‘SIGNIFICANT CONSEQUENCES’ Over Deadly 13-Hour Failure That Saw 600 Emergency Calls Go Unanswered
- Three people died during the outage, with Optus chief executive Stephen Rue admitting it was “completely unacceptable”
- Communications Minister Anika Wells warns of “significant consequences” for Optus, saying the company “failed the Australian people”
- The Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA) has launched an investigation into the outage, which impacted South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory
Optus is facing a barrage of criticism and potential penalties after a devastating 13-hour triple-0 outage that resulted in the deaths of three people. The Australian telco’s chief executive, Stephen Rue, has admitted the outage was “completely unacceptable” and warned that his company would be “held accountable”.
In a scathing assessment, Communications Minister Anika Wells slammed Optus, saying the company had “failed the Australian people” and would face “significant consequences” for the outage. The minister’s comments came as the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA) launched an investigation into the incident.
The outage, which occurred last week, saw more than 600 emergency calls go unanswered over 13 hours. The failure primarily impacted South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, with Optus revealing that three people died during the outage.
Rue revealed that the outage was caused by a technical fault identified during a network upgrade. However, the company’s response to the incident has been widely criticised, with the ACMA chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, saying her agency was not notified of the outage until after it was resolved.
O’Loughlin described the emails received from Optus as “perfunctory and inaccurate”, with the regulator only informed of the full extent of the outage, including the 624 impacted calls and three deaths, late on Friday.
Wells said she was first informed of the outage on Thursday afternoon, when she was told it was impacting 10 calls. However, she did not hear anything further until Friday, when she was notified that the outage had grown to 100 calls, and shortly after, that 600 calls had been impacted.
“Optus has failed the Australian people in what has happened here,” Wells said. “They can expect to suffer significant consequences as a result.”
The Coalition has called for a separate, independent investigation into the incident, labelling it a “complete disaster”. Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh said Australians had “a lot of questions” about the outage and its response.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declined to say whether Rue should step down over the incident, but said he would “be surprised” if the chief executive had not thought about it. The prime minister added that the government had “action at its disposal” but the first concern would be undertaking a proper investigation to “find out the facts, exactly how this happened”.
This is not the first time Optus has faced criticism over a triple-0 outage. In 2023, the company was hit with more than $12 million in penalties after an outage impacted 2,145 people.