Optus outage sparks public fury and calls for Aussie telco sector overhaul

Singtel-owned Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company, is facing public fury over an emergency services outage that has been linked to three deaths and prompted calls for an overhaul of the entire industry.

- Jonathan Pearlman For The Straits Times

An Optus store in Melbourne. The Singtel-owned telecommunications company, Australia's second-largest, triggered a 13-hour emergency services outage on Sept 18 during a network upgrade - the second major network failure involving the telco in less than two years. The outage has been linked to three deaths. PHOTO: AFP

(AFP)

Optus triggered the 13-hour outage on Sept 18 during a network upgrade — the second major network failure involving the telco in less than two years.

The company now faces intense scrutiny, including an investigation by the communications regulator, as it deals with questions about the length of time it took to notify the authorities and why customer complaints about the outage were not escalated.

Telecommunications experts say the crisis stemmed from underinvestment in infrastructure, and should lead to broader questions about the current state of the nation’s telecommunications sector.

Australia’s biggest telecommunications firm, Telstra, has also faced its own network failures, including an emergency services outage in March 2024.

A telecommunications consultant, Mr Paul Budde, told The Straits Times that there has been inadequate investment by Australia’s biggest telecommunications firms in infrastructure in the past two decades. He said the underinvestment has occurred as profits have been squeezed and “digital giants such as social media firms took the cream of the telecommunications profits”.

“Everybody blames Optus for this crisis,” he said. “Obviously, they will be punished, and trust in the firm is now completely gone. But the underlying issue is far more important: What is wrong with our infrastructure?”

During the outage, more than 600 emergency calls failed, mostly from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. In Australia, 000 is the primary emergency number.