Singtel faces Optus crisis with Aussie govt probe into outage

Failure of emergency call service that led to 3 deaths blamed on network upgrade

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Singtel faces a fresh crisis at its Australian division Optus after the government started an investigation into an emergency call outage that resulted in multiple deaths.

Last week’s network failure follows an Australia-wide outage at Optus in November 2023 that affected millions of customers — including some unable to make emergency calls. That blunder cost Optus a A$12 million (S$10.2 million) fine and the job of its then boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

The latest incident at Australia’s second-biggest phone company threatens the position of Ms Rosmarin’s successor as chief executive, Mr Stephen Rue.

There is potentially worse fallout to come. At a press conference on Sept 22, Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said she will consider any required regulatory or legislative changes once the probe into Optus’ botched network upgrade is complete.

Ms Wells said she has spoken to Mr Rue to express her “unbelievable disappointment that we should be here again so soon”.

Optus accounts for about half of Singtel’s annual revenue.