“We will co-operate fully and transparently with all relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies while we investigate this matter further.”
The company did not specify the length of the outage. It said that was one of the aspects of the incident under investigation.
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Optus will face widespread scrutiny over the incident, its first under the new chief executive, who joined the company after previous chief Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned following a mass outage and a data breach.
The telco could face fines of more than $10 million and other legal penalties.
When asked about his own leadership, Rue said, “Today is not about me, today is about the people who lost their lives.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the incident was “incredibly serious and completely unacceptable”.
“The impact of this failure has had tragic consequences and my personal thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one,” she said.
“While details are still emerging, no Triple Zero outage is acceptable.
Communications Minister Anika Wells: “This outage will be thoroughly investigated.”Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Optus and all telecommunication providers have obligations to ensure they carry emergency services calls.
“This outage will be thoroughly investigated. The Australian government accepted all recommendations from the previous Optus outage review and has fully implemented 12 of the 18 recommendations, with the remaining six under way.”
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said it was “deeply concerning” that the Triple Zero “camp-on” arrangements – in which emergency calls are diverted to other carriers such as Telstra – had failed.
“My heart goes out to the families and loved ones who have tragically passed away,” she said.
“Whilst Optus is still undertaking an investigation as to how this occurred, I am very concerned the emergency camp-on arrangements that should have been in place also failed.
“There must be a full and thorough investigation into this incident, to establish how and why and most importantly – ensure this never happens again”.
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A November 2023 network meltdown affected about 10 million customers and left hundreds unable to get through to Triple Zero emergency services over 16 hours and a September 2022 data breach was the worst in Australian corporate history.
Last year, the telco was made to pay a $12 million fine by the Australian Communications and Media Authority for breaching emergency call regulations.
An ACMA investigation found that during the nationwide network outage in 2023, Optus failed to provide Triple Zero access for more than 2000 people, and subsequently failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on those who had attempted to make emergency calls.
“We don’t manage the Triple Zero system,” Bayer Rosmarin told a Senate hearing in 2023. “It’s a very complex system that involves all the carriers. We’re still investigating that, and we’re really happy that the ACMA has called an investigation into why this did not work.”
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